Courtesy of Zhu Zhu, a female school bully: Photographer Valler
Shenzhen girl Zhu Zhu interviewee provided a picture
□ Dahe News Yu video reporter Chen Tiantian
How could a girl possibly get the first place in the Oxford Mathematics Department? How can girls' math be so good? Recently, Shenzhen girl Zhu Zhu (pseudonym) was caught up in the whirlpool of public opinion because of the video of "graduating with the first place in Oxford University".
In the face of the doubts and attacks of strange netizens, Zhu Zhu fell into the dilemma of "self-proof of innocence". Zhu Zhu posted the official website link and the department head's comments to prove her academic qualifications, and then some people questioned the level of her questions, she answered the questions online, and after proving the level, some people continued to question where her money came from...
In an interview with the Dahe Newspaper Yu Video reporter, Zhu Zhu said that this experience has also allowed her to grow.
The girl was the first to be questioned in the Oxford exam grade, and solved math problems online to prove herself
Zhu Zhu is a person with a strong desire to express and share, and she has never hidden her love for wealth and her yearning for luxury things. In March this year, Zhu Zhu graduated from the Oxford Department of Mathematical Modeling with the first grade and received two scholarships from Oxford Doctoral Offer, she shared this good news on social platforms, and she did not expect that the questioning and insults that came to her face made her fall into the whirlpool of public opinion. Netizens labeled Zhu Zhu as "academic yuan", "micro-business" and "internet celebrity".
Some netizens questioned, "The first time I heard about the 'Department of Mathematical Modeling', can I be more professional when I compile it?" ”
The road to self-certification is difficult, Zhu Zhu posted a link to the official website and comments from the head of the department to prove her academic qualifications, and then some people questioned the level of her questions; proved the level, and some people continued to question where her money came from...
There was an education blogger who forwarded her Weibo, and gave her a university applied mathematics problem, when Zhu Zhu, who had done the exercise, saw it, it took twenty or thirty minutes to make this problem, because this problem lacked some boundary conditions, there was no only continuous solution, Zhu Zhu only sent out the solution idea. In addition, despite a series of explanations and clarifications by Zhu Zhu, some people still posted her contact information, home address and other information on the Internet, and she began to receive harassing phone calls continuously, and even the identity information of friends was implicated. Zhu Zhu broke down to the point of crying, and she had to install an alarm where she lived.
Zhu Zhu said: "On the one hand, many people question the reason for the stereotype and prejudice of women, they think that I am a girl how can I learn mathematics so well, it is impossible to take the Oxford first, but when one by one verification found that it is true, they began to discuss that I am doing this is showing off, 'showing off' is the second step of this matter fermentation, netizens think that my language style is relatively high-profile, think I am marketing hype." ”
In the face of various doubts, Zhu Zhu also reflected that the side he showed on social media was more of a social definition of success, and he did not completely really do himself, and promised that in the future, he would "be more realistic and bravely shed the protective color of 'tall'." She used a sentence that Gu Ailing once said to herself, which roughly means that in this world, everyone can choose to say positive or negative words, depending on what you want to leave for the world. Go all the way on, and the voices of doubt will be left in place, so weak that they can no longer be heard.
Her parents were both school bullies, but she had been tired of school and dropped out of school
Zhu Zhu grew up in Shenzhen, when she was in elementary school, she was not a "good student" and "well-behaved girl" in the eyes of her teachers, she scored 36 points in English and 45 points in mathematics. In the summer heat of Shenzhen, Zhu Zhu, who had felt unfair because of the air conditioning in the teacher's office and the only fan in the classroom, wrote a complaint letter to the principal, reflecting the unreasonable rules and regulations of the school. When she was a child, Zhu Zhu was relatively fat, coupled with rhinitis, her classmates gave her the nickname of "slug". In the face of the ridicule of children of the same age, Zhu Zhu gradually began to hate school, often missed class, and was finally persuaded by the principal to quit. Zhu Zhu's mother thought that it was unfair for the teachers to deal with their daughters without understanding the whole picture of the matter, and this kind of learning was not enough, and at the age of 10, Zhu Zhu dropped out of school.
After dropping out of school, Zhu Zhu began a new mode of study, and her parents were her teachers. Zhu Zhu's mother graduated from the junior class of the China University of Science and Technology, and his father is a doctor of computer science, and they let Zhu Zhu choose what he likes and is interested in to learn in a way that jumps out of the outline. She recalls that her mother accompanied her to memorize words and do mathematical problems, and her father talked about the knowledge of higher mathematical fields such as geometry and equations in elementary and junior high school to Lagrange's median theorem, which laid the foundation for Zhu Zhu to open the door to the mathematical world. With no grades or rankings, she completed all courses in elementary and junior high school in two years and developed a strong interest in learning mathematics. Zhu Zhu said that if learning is a KPI and career that other students want to complete, then her years of studying at home can be regarded as a hobby.
At the age of 12, Zhu Zhu passed the English and mathematics tests and interviews, and was admitted to the Shenzhen Institute of International Exchange (referred to as "Shenzhen National Communication", with a four-year study system), which was her re-integration into the collective life after a gap of two years. Zhu Zhu took the first place in the final exam of the first year of high school, which also gave her the confidence to continue learning. In 2009, at the age of 15, Zhu Zhu applied to the Mathematics Department of Oxford University. The following year, after graduating from the Shenzhen National Diplomatic Exchange, she successfully enrolled in Oxford University, and this year Zhu Zhu was 16 years old, the youngest Chinese female student in that class.
Zhu Zhu's mother has stopped giving her money since she was 18 years old, and in the environment around her, entering the financial industry is a very common career path. Zhu Zhu also never felt that people who do academics cannot talk about money. On the contrary, she feels that achieving financial freedom first and then pursuing academic dreams is a better path. So after graduating from Oxford, the 20-year-old Zhu Zhu first went to JPMorgan Chase, then jumped ship to Goldman Sachs, and stayed in the financial industry for seven years. She earned a million dollars a year on her own and bought her first house and car. While some goals have been achieved, there are times when difficulties are encountered. At first, Zhu Zhu wanted to be the person who changed the world, she thought that through what she learned, she could predict the market and solve the market demand most of the time, but she did not do it, so she went to read the relevant papers, but found that many papers could not be understood. So Zhu Zhu began to do math problems in between work, read research papers, and learned all the more than twenty courses that she did not have to choose in undergraduate, and in 2020, she was admitted to Oxford University again and returned to Oxford to study for a second master's degree.
She strives to break labels and shackles and prove that girls can be anything they look like
In the eyes of others, Zhu Zhu grew up in a double-school bully family and won at the starting line at birth. Zhu Zhu said that she is a lucky person, especially in the early stages of her study career and career, she feels lucky for herself, and at the same time feels anxious that she does not deserve this luck. Until a netizen's message told Zhu Zhu: Born in a family like her, it is right and wrong
Often lucky, the starting point is high, but it is not easy to be able to hold such a family background. Seeing this sentence, Zhu Zhu began to try to change and overcome his anxiety.
Zhu Zhu said that her mother was a teacher, and after she dropped out of school at the age of 10, her mother gave up her job to become a full-time mother, teaching herself classes at home. At that time, she and her mother were very stressed, because they faced various unknown things such as not going to school and not finding a good job in the future. Later, Zhu Zhu was admitted to high school and college with her own efforts, and she and her mother's "adventurous impulse" approach had a happy ending.
Therefore, Zhu Zhu does not recommend that other parents imitate their own forms of education and let their children leave school to study at home, she feels that her path cannot be copied, "When my parents asked me to withdraw from school, they did not know what would happen to me in the future." ”
Studying at prestigious schools, going to big factories, being banker, being financially independent, oxford as a doctoral student in mathematics, Zhu Zhu's track has always been male-dominated, and she strives to break the label and shackles to become one of them, proving that girls can be any way they can be. Zhu Zhu does not consider herself a "genius", but she likes Gu Ailing, who is called a "genius girl", and she commented: There is no trace of gender on Gu, nor is there a trace of genius in a competitive society.
Zhu Zhu is full of hope for the future, she hopes that she can protect the people around her in the future, hopes to make a little achievement in the larger mathematical world in the future, hopes to reduce the stereotype of doctoral students and researchers in society, hope...
Among them, what she hopes most is that the next time, in another corner of the world, when a girl shares her achievements, the person who wants to call her "academic yuan" will remember the math problem she did.