《琵琶行》成高考战歌了？朋友圈刷屏：“感我此言良久立”……

With the gaokao approaching, a new viral track has breathed fresh life into Pipa Xing (The Song of the Pipa Player) — an ancient poem etched into our collective memory through countless mornings of recitation. The comments section beneath it has become a living time capsule, where every line echoes a bygone era and pays tribute to the irreplaceable youth we once shared. 

While seniors on the threshold of their exams remain composed, many who graduated long ago find themselves unexpectedly moved by these memories.

Each gaokao season, a new "exam anthem" inevitably goes viral. Yet those most touched by these songs are often not the students about to take the test, but the people looking back, cherishing their youth and bidding farewell to a chapter of their lives.

Pipa Xing captured so many hearts because it gave voice to the hidden longings and quiet regrets many carry from their school days.

"Deep in the night I dreamed of happy bygone years, and woke to find my rouged face crisscrossed with tears."

A thousand years later, Bai Juyi's melancholy still resonates, becoming a gentle refuge for those revisiting their youth in the stillness of the night.

A familiar melody can transport listeners to the glow of a flashlight beneath a senior-year quilt, or to classmates chanting: "The thick strings loudly thrummed like the pattering rain; The fine strings softly tinkled in a murmuring strain."

Pipa Xing has always been a dialogue across centuries: a musician mourning her lost vibrancy and Bai Juyi longing for his days in Chang'an. It also invites listeners to look back at their younger selves — studying late into the night, believing the gaokao was life's greatest challenge, or laughing with friends as if time would never run out.

The gaokao is only the beginning of a much longer journey. As the years pass and new anthems emerge, each generation will continue to find its own adolescence within the rhythm.

跟着China Daily

精读英语新闻

“无痛”学英语，每天20分钟就够！

↓↓↓