Xining Evening News, 1 Marc 2015
Reporter: Zhang Jiongqiang
The enrolment examination of the Shanghai Theatre Academy’s Department of Acting started from yesterday. In the background of the Ministry of Education and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission introducing a series of initiatives pertaining to regulating the examination processes of art majors, the enrolment examination of the STA’s Department of Acting this year features some new changes aiming to be more transparent and fair and is therefore described by the examinees as the “most strict” art major examination.
This year, the art major examination of all acting majors of STA will take place in the standardized examination rooms. Therefore, STA has cancelled all examination sites outside of Shanghai so that all examinees will attend the examination at only one site within the STA campus. For the examination of the Department of Acting, half of the examiners to give the rating on the spot are external experts including a number of accomplished performing artists. The challenge system is rigorously enforced and STA undertakes that if a relative of or a student tutored by a teacher of STA happens to be an examinee, the teacher concerned must take the initiative to apply for challenge. In order to be fair and open, the examination of the acting majors will use electronic scoring device for the first time. Besides, STA has made it clear that in this year’s enrolment of acting majors, the examinees are unable to avoid the academic scores. After the national university entrance examination, a “red line” (i.e. the minimum enrolment score) will be drawn first and any examinees whose scores are below this score will have to miss STA’s Department of Acting.
This weekend, the leading art universities across the country will all start their enrolment examination of acting majors, and the media has put focused on the topic of “female examinees not allowed to have make-up”. In this regard, STA states that it is a long-standing rule that female examinees are not allowed to have make-up and STA has been sticking to this rule for many years. Nowadays, there are some competition shows in the society in which the contestants are dressed peculiarly. Misled by this, some examinees might come to the interview section of the examination in such kind of image. As a matter of fact, the art universities formally owned by the state adopts the traditional aesthetic standard in the enrolment of students. Not only prohibiting female examinees from having make-up, STA also has an unwritten policy which precludes any male examinees who are found to have tattoo(s) and/or wear earring(s) from admission into the Department of Acting.
