Within hours of the Chinese paper ending on the first morning of the gaokao, the essay prompt (作文题) is published, debated and parodied across Chinese media. Columnists write model answers, and families compare it with the topics of their own year. No other part of the exam is discussed so widely.
The essay is worth 60 of the paper's 150 points and must be at least 800 characters long. Most modern prompts are material-based (材料作文): candidates are given a passage, a set of quotations, a cartoon or a short scenario, and must draw out their own theme and write about it. Some add a specific task, such as writing a letter or speech to a named audience.
A few recent prompts are especially well remembered. In 2016 one national paper used a cartoon in which two children were rewarded or punished purely according to their test scores, regardless of whether they were improving or slipping. Candidates were asked to respond to what it said about how we judge progress and results.
In 2017 one national paper listed a set of 'China keywords' chosen by young people from other countries — among them high-speed rail, mobile payment, shared bicycles, the Great Wall, giant pandas and air pollution — and asked candidates to pick two or three and use them to help foreign readers understand China.
In 2018 a national paper set out milestones since 2000 and asked candidates to write to young people who would turn eighteen in 2035, linking their own generation's experience with the next. In 2024 a national paper took on artificial intelligence, asking whether, as the internet and AI answer more questions more quickly, we will end up with fewer questions of our own.
The pattern is visible. Prompts tend to tie personal reflection to wider social themes: education, national development, technology, tradition and change. They are designed to have no single correct answer, so marks go to the clarity of the argument, the quality of evidence and the control of language rather than to a particular opinion.
For learners of Chinese, past prompts are an excellent source of practice. Read the material, write the thesis in one sentence, outline three supporting points, and compare your plan with published model essays. Prompts differ between the national papers and provincial papers in the same year, so check which paper a prompt came from.