If the contents of the recently concluded annual admission examinations of China's top art colleges are any indicator, then knowing how to communicate in English will soon be necessary to breaking into the country's entertainment arts, as reported by China Daily.
On Monday, the Beijing Film Academy, the Central Academy of Drama and Communication University of China had their second round of tests. All three institutions are considered influential incubators for honing the future talents of China's entertainment industry.
The examinations will run until early March.
While the country's national college entrance exam, known as the gaokao, is not expected to include English any time in the near future, colleges like the Beijing Film Academy are stressing their expectation that students have competent foreign language scores.
"It's not against the policies, but a solution to meet the changing demands for talent education and the movie markets--both domestically and internationally--in the next five to 10 years," said Mu Deyuan, dean of studies of Beijing Film Academy.
Mu also mentioned that the academy will require students to improve their English communication skills if they want to qualify for international cooperation projects.
The Beijing Film Academy reached a record high of 30,400 applicants this year, a 23.4-percent year-on-year increase. Unfortunately, there are only 467 seats to fill at the prestigious academy.
Numbers at the other two institutions were similar to that of last year. At the Central Academy of Drama, 29,533 applicants are competing for 573 seats. At the Communication University of China, 27,299 applicants are competing for 756 seats.
According to the institutions, the most intense competition is for performance majors. Communication University of China received 4,297 applicants for their performance programs despite only having 26 seats, 165 applicants for every seat.
For the Beijing Film Academy, there are 170 acting applicants per available seat.