National Higher Education Entrance Examination
With the restoration of the National Higher Education Entrance Examination in 1978 after the ending of the Cultural Revolution, Chen Danqing was admitted to the oil paintings department of China Central Academy of Fine Arts as a graduate student. He stayed and taught at the school after his graduation in 1980. In the same year, his thesis work, "Tibetan Paintings", received much wider recognition than any of his previous works, making Chen a noteworthy Chinese artist.