看了这篇文章，感觉错过了一个精彩的人生。

Janus Dongye, Coding Peasant at Universityof Cambridge (2012-present)（剑桥码农，2012至今）

Updated Mar 25

I grew up in a small town in Shandongprovince, Eastern China.

It is a small town with just 4 millionpeople. Most of the Chinese people have never heard of my hometown. By itspopulation, it is ranked at 130th among all 250 cities in China. Of course, itis considered a 4-th tier city.

My family was relatively poor compared toothers. And I was the only child of the family thanks to the one-child policy.

我在中国山东省的一个小城镇里长大。

这个城镇人口只有400万。大部分中国人从未听说过我的故乡。根据人口，它在中国所有250个城市里排名第130名。当然，它被认为是一个四线城市。

我的家庭相对贫穷。而由于一胎化政策，我是家里的独子。

Since age 4, my parents sent me to the bestkindergarten in the city. There were around 50 children in my class and 10other classes in my kindergarten. Given there were so many children in myclass, my teacher never noticed me, let alone remembered my name.

At age 6, I transferred to a publicpreschool that was designed to gain entry to the best primary school in myhometown. At that time, the preschool has only 4 classes, with 120 children perclass. I remembered I was sat with three other classmates at a small desk inthe back of the classroom. So 4-children per small desk. My parents were poorand powerless at that time so they couldn’t bribe the teacher to put me infront of the class.

4岁后，我父母将我送到市里最好的幼儿园。班里有50个儿童左右，整个幼儿园总共11个班。由于班里有那么多儿童，老师从来没注意到我，更别提记住我的名字了。

6岁，我转学到一家公立幼儿园，通过这家幼儿园进入我市最好的小学。当时，这个幼儿园只有四个班，每个班120个儿童。我还记得我和另外三个同学一起坐在班级后面一张小桌子后面。所以是每张小桌子坐四个人。我父母当时很穷，也没有关系，所以没办法贿赂老师，只能坐在后面。

At age 7, I successfully passed theentrance exam of primary school so that I joined the best primary school in mytown. At that time, there were around 6000 students in the school with 72classes over the six grades. Each class has around 80 students. For each grade,there were two “experimental” classes allocated with better teachers andresources. Again, my parents were poor and my entrance exam results were notenough to put me in the experimental class. So I was allocated in class 9, oneof the worst classes of all.

7岁，我成功通过小学的入学考试，进入了市里最好的小学。当时，这个小学里有6000名学生，6个年级，公共72个班级。每个班级大约80名学生。每个年级有两个“实验班”配备更好的老师和资源。我父母还是很穷，而凭借我的考试成绩没办法进入实验班。所以我被分配到9班，最差的班之一。

However, my parents were really strict andserious about my education. Although my teacher quality was not as good as the“experimental” classes, I was sent to an after-school supplementary class orcram schools for additional education. During the weekends, I was also forcedto enrol in an art and calligraphy school for “extracurricular activities”.

With the help of cram school and my hardwork, I successfully ranked 20th among the 80 pupils in my class from the1st-grade final year exam. Later on, my ranking improved significantly.

然而我父母对我的教育是非常严格和严肃的。虽然我们老师没有实验班的老师那么好。父母把我送到课后补习班里加强学习。周末，我还被迫加入一个艺术与书法学校以参加所谓的“课外活动”。

在补习班的帮助下，加上我的刻苦学习，班里80名学生，一年级期末考试中我成功排在了第20名。后来，我们的排名大大提升。

At age 11, for my 4th-grade final exams, Imanaged to get a 1st among my classmates. For top students in the normal class,they could be granted a privilege to join the “experimental class”. So that’swhy I then transferred to the “experimental” class, where all the best teachersand classmates in school. After joining the experimental class, I realised howcompetitive it was. I ranked 29th in the experimental class but my result couldhave been the first for normal classes.

I got frustrated and let down, at the sametime I fell in “love” with my crush in the same class. At that time, I thoughtwe were going to be married and live a happy life after. But the reality wasthat my results fell significantly during the 5th midterm so my teacherthreatened me that I might transfer back to the normal class if I did worse inthe final exam. My teacher also told my parents about this. After so muchpressure, I cheered up and successfully nailed it in the 5th-grade final exam.And I got an 11th among the 1000 pupils of my grade, 4th in my class.

11岁的时候，在4年级的期末考中，我成了班里的第一名。普通班级里的顶尖学生可以获得特权加入实验班。所以我被转到实验班里去，拥有最优秀的老师和同学。在加入实验班后，我才意识到竞争多激烈。我在实验班里排29名，但是我的成绩在普通班级里可以排第一。我觉得有点失落，同时我喜欢上了班里的一个女同学。当时我以为我们会结婚，从此以后过上幸福的日子。但现实是我五年级中期考的成绩严重下滑，所以老师威胁我说如果期末考成绩更差的话可能会被再次转回到普通班级。老师也通知了我的家长。在经受这么多压力后，我重新振作起来，我在五年级期末考中成绩不俗。在全年级1000名学生里我排名第11，班里第四。

The Chinese compulsory education consistsof 6 years of primary school and 3 years of high school. If you achieve the top50s in 5th-grade in your primary school, you could skip the 6th grade anddirectly participate in the entrance exam for the best middle-high school withother 6th-grades.

At age 12, I participated in the entranceexam of the best middle-high school in the whole town. There were around 4000primary school graduates that enrolled in the entrance exam and I managed toget 13rd among the 4000 students. By the rules, I was then allocated to class13 with ID number 001.

中国的义务教育包括6年的小学教育和3年的初中教育。如果小学五年级你排名全校50名内，你可以跳过6年级，直接和其他6年级学生一起参加初中入学考试。

12岁，我参加了全市最好初中的入学考试。有4000名小学毕业生参加考试，在4000名学生里我的成绩排名第13。根据规则，我被分到了十三班，学生号001。

My middle-high school had around 7000students over the 7th, 8th and 9th grade. Each grade had around 2300 students.There were around 70 students per class. Students have to study from 7am to9pm, six days per week. We have to strive for an entrance ticket for the besthigh school in town.

This is exactly what my classroom lookedlike. One of the best memories in my life.

Since I was the 1st in my class, I was heldhigh expectations from my teachers, because teachers got bonuses if theirstudents get high ranking in exams. So I was selected to participate in various“extension classes” in school including mathematical olympiad and writingcompetition.

这个学校总共有大约7000名学生。每个年级大约2300名。每个班级大约70名学生。从早上7点学到晚上9点，每周6天。我们得努力获得全市最好高中的入场券。

这就是我班级的样子。是我人生中最美好的回忆之一。

由于我是班级里的第一名，老师们对我的期望极高，因为学生考试排名高的话，老师能拿到奖金。所以我被挑选去参加学校里的各种“扩展班”，包括奥数和作文比赛。

I managed to maintain my 1st ranking on allthe next three years of midterm and final exams. My whole-grade rankingmaintained 10ish among the 2300 students. My picture was always posted on thefront panels from our building. My teachers were so proud of me for not justthe bonuses they got.

At age 15, it was time for high school. InChina, each city has its own unified high school entrance exam. And many highschools in the city use the same test questions but with different bars toaccept students. Most of the students were from rural areas with much worseeducation. However, this entrance exam is their only chance to get a muchbetter education in the city.

在接下来三年的所有期中和期末考试中，我都保持第一名。在全年级2300名学生中排名第十。我的照片始终贴在我们大楼的面板上。我的老师们为我感到骄傲，不仅仅是因为他们获得了奖金。

15岁，是时候读高中了。在中国，每个城市都有自己统一的高中入学考试。市里的很多高中都使用同样的试题，但是用不同的标准来录取学生。很多学生来自农村地区，受到的教育较差。然而，这次的入学考试是他们在市里获得更好教育的唯一机会。

So I participated in the high schoolentrance exam in my city. There were around 34,500 students enrolled in theentrance exam. And I managed to achieve the 19th place in the exam among the34,500 students.

After the exam ranking released, my parentsgot multiple phone calls from different high schools. They all wanted me tojoin their high school. Of course, one of the calls was from the best highschool in the city. And to our surprise, we also got a phone call from the besthigh school from the province capital - Jinan. I was told to enrol in theprovincial high school entrance exam for better opportunities.

所以我参加了我市的中考。有3.45万人参与了考试。我排名全市第19位。

在考试结果公布后，我父母接到不同高中打来的电话。都想让我去他们的学校读。当然，其中一通电话来自市里最好的高中。出于意料的是我省首府济南的一所最好的学校也打来了电话。我被告知参与省级中考以获得更好的机会。

Basically, the top 100 best performers incity-level high school entrance exams are told to enrol the provincialselective entrance exams. There are 17 cities in Shandong province. At thattime, there are around 2000 talents from all over the province that enrolled inthis selective exam and they only chose 80 of them.

I successfully got the 45th ranking amongthe 2000 talents because I worked so hard 7 days per week from 7 am to 11 pm. SoI managed to join the best high school in Shandong province. That means I needto leave my home city and migrate to the provincial capital to continue mystudy.

基本上，市里中考成绩最好的100名学生都被告知去参加省级的入学考试。山东有17个市。当时，大概有2000名成绩最好的学生参与了那次考试，而他们只选择其中80人。

我排名45，因为我太勤奋了，每周七天，每天从早上7点到晚上11点。所以我成功进入了山东省最好的高中。那意味着我要离开家乡，搬到济南继续我的学业。

At age 16, I moved to Jinan, the capital ofShandong province with 7 million people. I was thrilled to live in such a bigcity and in the best high school in Jinan. There were a lot of new things thathad broadened my visions.

My high school is said to be the top highschool in Shandong with around 7000 students from grade 10th, grade 11th tograde 12th. There are a total of 170 classes and each class has around 40people. This is obviously much better than my middle schools with 80 studentsper class! So we can get double attention from the teachers.

16岁，我搬到了济南，这里人口700万，生活在这么大的一个城市里加上我进入了最好的高中，所以相当兴奋。很多新事物扩宽了我的视野。

我的这所高中据说是山东省最好的高中，总共7000名学生。总共170个班级，每个班大约40人。这比我的那一个班级80人的初中好多了！所以我们可以获得老师双倍的注意。

And it was also my first time to see aforeign teacher in my school - a Canadian English teacher. It was my first timeto see a living creature that can actually talk in fluent English, a foreignlanguage that we were forced to learn since childhood.

Also before starting the 10th grade, wehave to participate in the military training and learn what is like to be asoldier and prepare to work hard for the incoming college entrance exams.

也是在这所学校里我第一次见到外教，一个加拿大英语老师。这是我第一次见到一个流利说英语的活生生的生物，从小我就被迫学习英语。

在开始上课前，我们还得参加军训，学习如何像士兵一样坚强，准备努力学习以迎接高考。

Over the next three years, my exam rankingsfluctuated from 20th to 200th among the 2000 students in my high school.Although I studied so hard and tried my best for each exam, there is alwayssomeone that is smarter and hard-working than you. The even bigger challenge isthe fierce competition of college entrance exams in China. We have to studyreally really hard in order to get admissions from the best Universities inChina.

At age 18, I participated in the nationalcollege entrance exam, which was the once-in-lifetime experience. There werearound 700k students in Shandong that sat the exam. However, I was so nervousat that time and did not go well with my Chinese literature. The result turnedout to be terrible for me: I only ranked 2,326 among the 700k high schoolgraduates.

在接下来的三年里，在2000名学生里，我的成绩在20到200名之间波动。虽然我尽了最大努力，但是还是有人比你聪明比你努力。更大的挑战是中国那竞争激烈的高考。我们真的要非常非常勤奋，才能进入中国最好的大学。L

18岁，我参加了全国高考，这是一生只有一次的经历。当时山东有70万人参加了高考。然而，当时我很紧张，所以语文没考好。结果是糟糕的，在70万人里，我排在了2326名。

This failure has made my dream universitiespretty distant. Tsinghua and Beijing University only select the top 100 amongthe 700k students. The rest of the top ten Chinese universities then select thetop 2000 students. With my terrible performance, I barely made it to the 12thuniversity in China.

At the same time, my high school offered mea second opportunity to study in the UK to compensate for my failure in theexam because I had a good record previously. This was from a foreign foundationthat represented the University of Cambridge. So I sat their exams, attendedtheir interviews and successfully got an offer from Cambridge.

这个失败导致我无法进入梦想中的大学。清华和北大只挑选前100名。其余8所顶尖中国大学只挑选前2000名的，所以我只能进入排名第12的中国大学。

同时，我的高中给我提供第二个机会去英国学习，以补偿我的高考失利，因为我之前一直保持良好的记录。这个机会来自一家代表剑桥大学的境外基金会。所以我参加了他们的考试和面试，最终成功被剑桥大学录取。

After that I have finally escaped theChinese circles of exams, ranking, competing and selection from thousands. Ifound life in Cambridge village was much much more relaxed and quiet. I wasused to a class with 80 people and it suddenly switched to a class with only 10people, I felt so shocked culturally.

But for the remaining students that wereselected to enrol in Chinese universities, they still faced even toughercompetition for exams, credits, scholarships, fundings and ultimately — jobs.Each opportunity is only selected from hundreds or thousands of greatcandidates already.

自那以后，我终于逃脱了中国的考试，排名，竞争和挑选循环。我发现剑桥村的生活放松和安宁多了。以前都是80人一个班，现在是10个人一个班，我受到了极大的文化冲击。

但是那些进入中国大学的学生们，依然要面对更加残酷的考试，学分，奖学金，资助以及最终的就业竞争。每一个机会都是千挑万选，非常激烈。

Therefore my whole life in China is exactlythe “Only-in-China” moment.

You spent years in becoming what you aretoday. Before you can feel proud, suddenly you realise that there are still1000 Chinese just did the same as you. And you have to compete with them.

It is exactly what it feels like in a 1.4billion population country with a meritocracy rooted culture. It applies to allthe scientists, engineers, civil servants, artists, government officials andeven communist party members. They are all selected from the thousands or evenmillions. Most of the elites have no powerful family backgrounds.

因此，我在中国的整个经历就是一个“中国独有”的时刻。

你努力成为你今天的样子。在你为自己感到自豪之前，突然你意识到还有1000个中国人和你一样优秀。然后你不得不和他们竞争。

这就是在一个拥有14亿人口的精英文化国家会有的感受。

这是适用于所有的科学家，工程师，公务员，艺术家，政府官员，甚至是党员。他们都是万里挑一。大部分精英都没有强大的家庭背景。

Poor Chinese families with no backgroundcould actually make their life better through hard work, competitions andexams. Though discrimination and corruptions do exist, the path to success forthe poor is actually not blocked.

没有背景的贫穷中国人可以通过自己的努力，竞争和考试，让自己过上更好的生活。虽然歧视和腐败也是存在的，但是穷人的成功之路并没有被堵住。

Vikram Shenoy Handiru

Mar 23 · 43 upvotes

A lot of Indians can relate to it.Especially those who prepare for IIT-JEE (Indian equivalent of GaoKao exam).Only difference is, our system is not strictly rooted in meritocracy.

很多印度人对你的这种经历感同身受。尤其是那些参加IIT-JEE考试（相当于印度高考）的印度人。唯一的区别是我们的系统不是严格根植于英才教育制度。

Janus Dongye

Original Author · Mar 26 · 12 upvotes

That’s why all my Indian friends inCambridge are so clever. India has meritocracy too!

所以我在剑桥的很多印度朋友都非常聪明。印度也拥有英才教育制度！

Avinash Sanghvi

Mar 31 · 1 upvote

We do, but our system is not that orderedor strict. Our engineering entrance exam JEE has about 1 Million to 1.2 Millioncandidates appearing each year. To get a seat in the best colleges (IIT) with agood engineering branch, you have to figure in the first 5000 students.

我们确实有，我们的制度没有那么有序和严格。我们的工程专业入学考试（JEE）每年有100到120万人参加考试。为了能进入最好的大学（IIT，印度理工学院），你的排名必须在5000以内。