Despite a rate of admission of just 1.3 percent, tens of thousands of hopeful applicants nevertheless lined up in droves this week for a chance to enroll at China's notoriously exclusive Beijing Film Academy– which has an acceptance rate four times lower than Harvard's.
A veritable hoarde of 38,144 students took part in the first-round of tryouts for the institution responsible for creating many of China's most famous movie stars, directors and film technicians. And with a record-breaking 25 percent more applicants over last year, the competition to land one of the school's 499 vacancies is fiercer than ever.
Competition for spots in some of the school's more sought-after departments is even tougher: there is only one open spot for every 114 applicants applying for the performing arts department (for a 0.9 percent admission rate), while the school's new broadcast writing and directing department has 4,112 applicants trying out for just 15 positions (0.4 percent).
By comparison, Harvard University admits 5.2 percent of applicants, while other Ivy League schools admit more, such as Columbia University (6 percent), and Princeton University (6.2 percent). Meanwhile, even prestigious performing arts schools like the Julliard School admit a higher percentage of applicants (6 percent).
And it isn't just anxious students who are feeling the excitement. The Chinese public have come to associate the annual tryouts for Beijing Film Academy for giving the first glimpse of tomorrow's celebrities. As in years past, numerous photographers have descended upon the event in droves, making the auditions so popular it is live-streamed.
There's good reason why Beijing Film Academy is often referred to as a "celebrity-manufacturing factory." The star-studded school features a who's-who of famous alumni that includes everyone from veteran Chinese director Zhang Yimou to his own hand-picked protege from his film The Love of the Hawthorn Tree (2010), Zhou Dongyu.
But the Beijing Film Academy doesn't just make stars, it also attracts them.
This year's crop of fresh ingenues happen to include TFBoys member Wang Junkai, SNH48 idol group member Zhao Jiaming, as well as Lin Miaoke, the girl famous for having lip-synced Ode to the Motherland at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Despite their famous pedigree of its student body, the school says that it maintains its exclusive enrollment by adhering to strict principles.
"We treat everybody equally," school's dean Zhang Na told ECNS."There have been examinees already famous in showbiz failing in the preliminary or second test before."
Compared to a country like South Korea in which competing talent agencies are constantly churning out new talent, China's highly-regulated entertainment industry gets most of its talent from its institutions. And even though TFBoy Wang hardly needs any lessons on how to be famous (after all, he is responsible for a Weibo post that has been retweeted a billion times), he and everyone who attends the Beijing Film Academy will still benefit from networking guanxi with his peers and elders.
Seeing as this is the best opportunity to make it big in the entertainment industry, some applicants have heavily invested towards their auditions.
One unidentified parent from Hubei admitted to a Beijing Evening News reporter that she has spent over RMB 100,000 to help her child successful enroll at the exclusive school.
"My child doesn't have any performing experience, but she wants to attend this school," said the parent. "We've had her attend some talent classes before, and then we had her take some lessons with a professional tutor in Beijing."
But there may be a hidden cost for these aspiring students. One Dongbei parent said he's worried for his child if he doesn't get accepted. "He's way behind on his homework," said the parent, adding that the university admission exam (gaokao) is coming up soon.
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Images: Xinhua, China Daily, hiapik, China Youth Daily, People's Daily