Poster of the TV drama Ode to Joy. [Photo/Mtime]

As the entertainment industry booms in China, celebrities are becoming an integral part of people's cultural life, and even in education. As more and more life stories of pop stars are cited as examples in papers in schools, people's attitude on the matter is becoming increasingly divided.

Exam papers

It's been a while that entertainment celebrities started appearing in exam questions and the trend seems to be growing. Musician Jay Chou, actress Yang Mi, actor Du Tao, and even South Korean TV drama My Love From The Star have all made their appearance in school exam papers, and the list of celebrities is long.

For example, Yang Mi once said in the public that "when you wonder at the sparkling light coming from the fireflies, you haven’t seen their wings striking to swing behind their bodies," referring to the enormous effort she paid in order to stand out in acting. This sentence later became part of the background material in exams, based on which students were required to write an article. Meanwhile, lyrics of Jay Chou’s songs are also used as exam questions and even textbook content in different regions of China.

The view of the public is divided. Many are happy to see the changes keeping pace with the times and make education more interesting, while others argue that entertainment has nothing to do with education and that such moves would push teenagers to spend more time on entertainment and pop culture and less on studies.