TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An essay question on Hsinchu Girls' Senior High School’s third grade Chinese final exam went viral due to an image prompt that contained sexual innuendo.
The essay question was uploaded on Tuesday (Dec. 27) by online forum PTT user twnndnpdnc, who posted an image of the school’s test paper with the title, “This prompt is too badass!” The prompt’s image showed a giraffe painting a top-down view of a lion, which resembles the shape of the male genitalia.
Under the image, the text of the prompt read, “The above is a comic. Please interpret the message and possible meaning the image conveys and explain your viewpoints.” The essay question was worth 24 points out of the exam’s 100.
The image used in the exam is a meme that has been circulating on the internet since as early as 2020. It has been shared on social media, including Twitter and other meme-based platforms such as Reddit and 9gag.
SETNews cited the school’s Principal Lin Kuei-feng (林桂鳳) as saying the teacher who wrote the test had simply wanted students to understand that different people view things from different perspectives. It was a reminder for students not to take a surface perspective and look deeper.
She stressed that the prompt had nothing to do with sexual matters.
When asked how students reacted to the question, Lin said there was not much discussion about the issue, and neither the school’s faculty nor the students expected it to go viral. She added that the teacher responsible for writing the test feels “a little stressed” because of all the attention.
