| Translate This News In |
|---|
Following the announcement by China’s Shanghai University that the swimming test would be moved online due to the COVID-19 outbreak, netizens went into a meme frenzy, with one of the students donning swimming goggles and a hat and jumping from his nightstand onto the bed to enact swimming moves. The Dean’s office at the Chinese university announced on May 15 that the final swimming test for senior graduating college students might be done online, which was heavily mocked by netizens, including TikTok users pretending to be students trying to prepare for the test, according to the Washington Examiner, a US-based media outlet.
One of the participants joked that the test was a true reality version of “surfing the web.”
Another participant in the hilarious meme fest joked that swimming in the bathtub at residence would be permitted instead.
Furthermore, one of the Twitter users can be seen working on a laptop while wearing swimming goggles in a swimming pool.
To graduate, students completing their bachelor’s degrees at the most prestigious Chinese universities must pass a 50-meter swim test. This latest move by China has many people laughing and beginning to wonder whether it is a swim or sink test.
According to an unnamed dean’s office staffer, the decision to move the test online was made in response to a surge of COVID-19 cases that compelled the city into lockdown on April 1.
According to the Chinese publication Jimu, “The university’s classes and facilities, including the swimming pool, are currently closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown. We decided to hold the swimming test online in order to ensure that the students could graduate.”
Notably, China’s Zero-COVID policy has received widespread condemnation. Residents in Shanghai have been going to protest from their windows, banging pots and pans and yelling in frustration; others have even clashed with police and health care workers in the streets, a rare sight in a country where dissent is routinely repressed.
The harsh reality of China’s notorious Zero-COVID policy has also been revealed by leaked social media videos. Two viral videos have practically raised eyebrows and attracted criticism all over the world.
One of the viral videos comes from Shanghai, and it shows people screaming from their balconies at home. Shanghai, the country’s financial capital, has revealed over 20,000 cases per day.
