Students leave an exam site after their first test in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, June 7, 2022. [Photo by Tan Yunfeng/for chinadaily.com.cn]

The gaokao essay questions have echoed China's double reduction policy of bringing school education back to its essence of improving students' overall abilities while enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom, experts said.

A record 11.93 million students in China are sitting the national college entrance exam this week. The Chinese language was the subject of the first test, which was held on Tuesday morning.

The essay questions in the Chinese language test always attract a great deal of attention every year, making local and national headlines.

Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily and Guangming Daily, for instance, published all the essay questions from various papers.

Students took seven different papers on the Chinese language this year, which means seven sets of essay questions. There were four national papers produced by the National Education Examinations Authority of the Ministry of Education, and three local papers produced by education authorities from Beijing, Tianjin and Zhejiang province.

The questions covered classic works of literature, State affairs and common values.

One much-discussed essay question provided an excerpt from the classic of Chinese literature, A Dream of Red Mansions, and asked students to write an 800-word essay based on it.

"Classics and culture-related essay questions are becoming popular. Students have the opportunity to express a deeper understanding by analyzing the reading materials," Zeng Yiming, a Chinese language teacher from South China Normal University Affiliated High School, told Xinhua News Agency.

"The content of the excerpt is about aesthetic education. President Xi Jinping once told educators across the country to improve students' attainments in the fields of arts and humanitarianism. From this point of view, the paper emphasized five types of education－military, practical matters, morality, worldview and aesthetics－proposed by influential Chinese philosopher and educator Cai Yuanpei. It also shows the nation's view toward selecting talented young people," Tao Quyong, an associate professor from Renmin University of China's literature school, told Guangming Daily.

Another essay question asked students to write about basic, smart and lousy moves to make when playing weiqi, also known as the game Go.

China Youth Daily quoted some experts who designed this year's questions as saying that they inspired students and teachers to pursue the ability of learning and gaining knowledge instead of simply memorizing answers.

Other questions related to State affairs included the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Youth League of China.

A major trend in essay questions in recent years has been to closely link daily life subjects with popular political issues, said the experts. Students have more room to play if they pay attention to the development of the nation and the times, Xinhua News Agency quoted experts who produced Chinese language tests as saying.

This year's exam was the first since China carried out its double reduction policy, a combination of measures introduced last year aimed at reducing the academic burden on students from homework and extracurricular tutoring.

It was introduced by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council in July. The policy forbids academic tutoring courses during weekends, public holidays, and the summer and winter vacations.