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Wei Dongyi does not need labels

Wei Dongyi does not need labels

Wen | Ma Xiaolong

Following last year's popularity with a rustic image and conversation, Wei Dongyi, a young scholar at Peking University, has once again appeared on the hot search list of social platforms.

Judging from some media reports, this time there are several stories that accompany Wei Dongyi's enthusiasm - "the equations that six doctors can't solve were solved by Wei Dongyi in minutes" "Harvard broke the century-old school rules for him" and so on.

Wei Dongyi does not need labels

Although these stories have various details, they have not yet been personally confirmed by the parties involved in the incident, but after various disseminations on the Internet, they have a bit of drama. For example, a screenshot shows that six doctors recharge their bus cards for Wei Dongyi in order to show their gratitude, and such a story is somewhat entertaining. And even if this is true, the excessive discussion of these details deviates from the essence of focusing on Wei Dongyi.

Wei Dongyi is of course excellent, winning the gold medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad at the age of 16 and then being sent to Peking University, which is enough to prove his own excellence and professional talent.

Wei Dongyi does not need labels

And even during the period of public attention, Wei Dongyi can focus on his own research and continue to take the curriculum arranged by the school. This focus on mathematics is invaluable in the current academic environment, which is one of the reasons why he is highly respected by netizens.

However, in addition to his academic focus, Wei Dongyi is still more of an ordinary person. For example, he likes to carry a torn-off bottle of 1.5 liters of pure water in class, and he will eat the most ordinary pasta like others - steamed buns.

Wei Dongyi does not need labels

These are all Wei Dongyi's behavior in daily life, and they are also the normal performance of young scholar Wei Dongyi as an ordinary person. These humanized components cannot be erased in the stories spread on the Internet, let alone labeled.

Therefore, for Wei Dongyi, many stories in the field of public opinion and the pursuit of these stories may not be what he needs. What he needs is a down-to-earth academic environment and living environment, rather than being pushed onto the altar by public opinion, being mystified, and then living according to the ideas of public opinion.

It should be clear that the pursuit of martial arts novels will not have much benefit to Wei Dongyi, and the wide dissemination of some rumors and stories that have not been confirmed by the parties will only further label and moralize Wei Dongyi's image in the minds of the public. In the long run, more people will impose their own ideas and cognitions formed by some stories on Wei Dongyi, even if these people may not have seen Wei Dongyi in reality.

Wei Dongyi does not need labels

The dean of the School of Mathematics at Peking University responded to the media that he is very focused on doing mathematics, that he has a relatively simple lifestyle, and that we respect his wishes. In fact, this should become the basic attitude towards Wei Dongyi in the field of public opinion. Not to deify a certain person excessively, to respect his humane way of expression and way of life, and to look at a young scholar with a normal heart is an extremely rare thing in the current field of public opinion.

In fact, many previous cases have shown that once public opinion moralizes and deifies a person, it is easy to fall into the logic of the circle of rice, see only his single side, and ignore the diversity and complexity of this person as an individual.

Once this person is "exposed" to a little practice, or private behavior is inconsistent with the stereotypes in public opinion, it will trigger the active reaction of public opinion, followed by network controversy. We don't want such a thing to happen to Wei Dongyi.

Wei Dongyi does not need labels

On a broader level, some people, with high expectations for Mr. Wei, have begun to "analyze" how likely he is to win the Fields Medal. Such expectations are actually a burden for Wei Dongyi. As the "Nobel Prize of mathematics", the difficulty of winning the Fields Medal is undoubtedly obvious to all, so even if our academic development speed has been very fast, so far, only two Chinese mathematicians have won this award, including the famous mathematician Yau Chengtong, who returned to China to teach some time ago.

From this point of view, public opinion obviously must face up to the current situation of a discipline, do not over-entertain and deify a discipline, and do not over-label a young scholar. Let him live his life, do not attach too much nihilistic meaning to his personal choices, may be the most important thing to do now. Still that sentence, don't let Wei Dongyi live in the imagination of netizens.

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Text: Ma Xiaolong

Image: Network

Recitation: Wang Qian

Editor-in-charge: Wang Zimo

Editors: Zhang Xueyu, Zhang Yongqun, Sun Dai

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