Studying The Hardcore Ancient Chinese Way
Please don’t.
In normal places, people figure out what they want to do, do what they need to do to get/learn what they want, then do what they want with their lives.
In Hong Kong, starting from when the kid pops out into the world, every moment of their existence is used towards one and one goal only: studying, and getting into uni. Hell, some pregnant moms are already arranging kindergarten places for their unborn babies.
No one knows what happens after uni though.
To get into uni in Hong Kong you need to ace a public exam. My biology teacher used to joke about him and his classmates putting jars of instant coffee powder on their desks and spooning coffee powder into their mouths while studying for the public exam. My Chinese teacher joked about an ancient Chinese scholar stabbing his thighs with a knife to stay awake for studying.
These Chinese studying stories probably were urban legends at their times and as the stories spread around, they became Chinese idioms. Let’s take a look at these tales as they went up the fucked-up meter:
