“I’ve finished my recitation. Please comment, judges.”
Xia Xiaolan felt this was an easy-scoring question.
Novels like “Gone with the Wind” and “How the Steel Was Tempered” were well-known in China. Whether studying arts or sciences, anyone who attended school in the 1980s would be embarrassed to engage in conversation without having read these classic works.
Among the previous sixteen contestants, none had been as fortunate as Xia Xiaolan. The recitation question was so simple that she could have narrated the plot of “Gone with the Wind” whether or not she had clearly heard the original passage.
Xia Xiaolan didn’t feel particularly lucky. With so many audience members below, and the stage lights especially bright for recording purposes, she could barely make out anyone’s faces in the audience.
Did Teacher Lin and Professor He know about someone trying to “pull strings” for her?
With such a simple question, could it be that Wang Guangping had arranged connections for her… This was such a lowly tactic. If Xia Xiaolan scored high points with such an easy question, others would surely gossip.
If she won a prize, it would be like a fly landing in her mouth – whenever people mentioned Xia Xiaolan in the future, they would also bring up this dishonorable award experience!
Just as Xia Xiaolan wanted to ask why she received this particular question, Professor Xu Guozhang, sitting in the most important position, finally spoke:
“Your recitation was excellent, incorporating some of your understanding. Everyone present could tell that this condensed story came from American author Margaret Mitchell’s famous work ‘Gone with the Wind.’ In 1939, Mr. Fu Donghua first translated this book, choosing the title ‘飘’ (Piao) to capture its sense of ephemeral vastness. Xia Xiaolan, this question was specially prepared for you. While we study English for practical purposes, we must also be capable of appreciating foreign literature’s beauty. I’d like to hear your thoughts on ‘Gone with the Wind,’ from any perspective you choose.”
This question was specifically prepared for her!
Murmurs immediately spread through the audience.
Catherine and Zhan Aiqun were puzzled, but Xu Guozhang’s senior status and authority carried enough weight to control the situation when he announced that Xia Xiaolan was deliberately given a different question. At least there were only doubts, not open challenges.
The other two judges knew the inside story – this was discussed between them and Xu Guozhang.
Suspecting that Zhan Aiqun had already been compromised, the three of them decided to switch questions last minute, both to test Xia Xiaolan and to protect her.
The question was changed at the last moment, and Xu Guozhang’s reputation was sufficient to suppress any doubts.
Professor Xu Guozhang wouldn’t risk his lifetime of integrity over one English competition – this was the impression formed by decades of his words and actions!
English isn’t just practical; if you study a language but can’t appreciate its literature, it shows you haven’t truly mastered it.
Take Huaqing University for example – the full name of the Foreign Language Department is “Department of Foreign Languages and Literature”!
Thoughts on “Gone with the Wind”?
“Gone with the Wind” is both a love story and a war novel. There are many ways to analyze and view it. Xia Xiaolan felt that speaking from any angle might lack novelty for judges like Xu Guozhang – hadn’t Professor Xu said she could share thoughts from any perspective?
If Teacher Lin were here, she would surely advise Xia Xiaolan to play it safe.
Don’t repeat the mistake from the second interview, don’t be too innovative… Xia Xiaolan could only silently apologize to Teacher Lin. It wasn’t that she wanted to take risks, but the situation was different now. The judges had presented a unique question, probably not wanting to hear the same old answers!
Many thoughts raced through Xia Xiaolan’s mind, though only a few dozen seconds had passed.
“Some read ‘Gone with the Wind’ for its love and hatred; others read it for the brutality of the Civil War… No single simple evaluation can fully capture this work. I believe the author, through characters like Scarlett, Melanie, and Rhett, their actions, customs, etiquette, including their mental states and political attitudes, recreates Lincoln’s Civil War, showing the social life of the American South at that time. More importantly, through ‘Gone with the Wind,’ I more directly sensed that America’s strength lies not only in its economy and weapons but also in its social progress and openness. The North won the war, yet they allowed a novel written purely from a Southern perspective to become the premier work about the Civil War.”
Xia Xiaolan’s perspective was indeed unique.
In the audience, Teacher Lin felt anxious.
Asked to comment on “Gone with the Wind,” why did she bring up American social progress and openness?
Such statements could be made sometimes but not others, and even Teacher Lin couldn’t judge when it was appropriate. She only knew it was a sensitive issue.
At the judges’ table, Catherine applauded:
“Wonderful! This is a different kind of review than I’ve heard before. You have your thoughts, and of course, your spoken English is excellent!”
The last-minute question change brought unexpected delight. After hearing so many conventional answers, Catherine found this authentic voice quite refreshing. This definitely couldn’t have been a pre-arranged answer. Having lived in China for some time, Catherine knew certain topics were sensitive – no teacher would have instructed Xia Xiaolan to answer this way.
In other words, these were Xia Xiaolan’s thoughts and ideas; she dared to express herself in this competition.
Only then did Xu Guozhang and the other two judges completely set aside their doubts.
If Catherine understood the sensitivity, how could native Chinese professors not?
Director Wang’s strange behavior wasn’t helping but rather trapping Xia Xiaolan in a whirlpool of “cheating” suspicion.
If Xu Guozhang and the two judges weren’t satisfied with Xia Xiaolan’s second oral test, they would have more pointed questions waiting for her – they would have asked on stage what Xia Xiaolan thought about “cheating.”
Would a young student around 20 years old, suddenly exposed before three to four hundred live audience members, really not show any panic?
At that time, Xu Guozhang would have shown Director Wang how he “looked after” Wang’s junior.
Zhan Aiqun also felt this answer was a bit sensitive. She couldn’t worry about avoiding suspicion now and quickly steered the topic:
“Miss Xia means that we should analyze various aspects of strong nations like America, seeing the big picture through small details, truly understanding powerful countries to better develop our motherland, right?”
“Yes, judge.”
That question should be over now, right?
Xu Guozhang took over, “Xia Xiaolan, please listen carefully to the third question. Why did you choose your major, what are your plans for your field of study, and what kind of achievements do you think you can accomplish in your professional field in the future?”