With an IQ of 140+, he entered university at the age of 10, was admitted to a master's degree at the age of 13, and pursued a doctorate at the age of 16, becoming the youngest doctor in China at that time.
The name "Zhang Qiao (xīn) 炀 (yáng)" was once named "prodigy". He was hailed as a genius, and everywhere he went, flowers and applause were heard.
Born in 1995 and now 28 years old, he recently gave an interview to reporters about his current situation as an "ordinary person". From a "child prodigy" to an "ordinary person", what did he go through?
He often had the highest grades in college, and he graduated after 8 years of doctoral studies
Zhang was born in an ordinary family in Panjin City, Liaoning Province, his mother was a high school teacher and his father worked in a neighborhood office.
Zhang has been gifted since he was a child, and by the age of two and a half, he had already known more than 2,000 words. At the age of 5, his father sent him to elementary school, and in less than a month, Zhang Qiaoqiao learned all the knowledge and was placed in the second grade by the school.
However, the knowledge points of the second grade were still not difficult for him, and he skipped the grade again, and just like that, he only took less than 6 months to jump to the fifth grade.
Zhang Qiongqiao and his father
In junior high school, Zhang Qiaoqiao is still a unique existence. Regardless of the size of the exam, he will always turn in the paper 20 minutes early. Despite this, his results are among the best.
In the end, his father decided to let him drop out of school and go home to study high school textbooks on his own, after which Zhang was transferred to a senior class to prepare for the college entrance examination.
In June 2005, 10-year-old Zhang Qiongqiao took the college entrance examination, and he handed in his English 20 minutes in advance, and he scored 510 points, more than 50 points higher than the second main line that year. Although he was not admitted to the 985 college, his father decided - not to repeat his studies, to enroll in an ordinary second college. When his peers were still in elementary school, Zhang was already admitted to Tianjin Engineer Normal College (now renamed Tianjin Vocational and Technical Normal University), becoming the youngest college student in the country at that time.
Worried that his children would be too young to take care of themselves, Zhang's father chose to resign from public office, while his mother was transferred to teach at a school near his university, and the couple accompanied him. Zhang completed all the courses at the university in just three years.
In 2008, 13-year-old Zhang was admitted to the Department of Mathematics of Beijing University of Technology as a graduate student.
In 2011, 16-year-old Zhang was admitted to Beihang University, becoming the youngest doctoral student in China, once again breaking a record.
However, during his doctoral studies, Zhang could no longer experience the superiority of genius.
Over the years, Zhang Qiongqiao has relied on his own way of learning, although his grades are good, but he lacks the learning thinking of systematic education, so that he thinks about problems very one-sidedly, lacks depth in thinking about problems, and takes many detours in choosing the direction of scientific research.
Throughout his doctoral period, Zhang's studies were in a state of suspension, unable to concentrate on academic research, and often changed research topics, so that he repeatedly postponed his studies. It wasn't until 2019 that Zhang was able to graduate. It took 8 years from the doctorate to the degree.
"Very happy with my current situation"
"You can live your whole life without working with your parents' support"
After graduating with a doctorate, Zhang worked as an external teacher at Ningxia Normal University, resigned in August 2021, and is currently partnering with friends to earn money.
He saved almost 50,000 yuan when he was a teacher, but now he is basically running out. "Almost every two or three months, my parents would take the initiative to call me 10,000 yuan. I don't have a fixed salary now, and I can get about 50,000 yuan for completing a project and closing a project. ”
Mr. Zhang said he now has thousands of yuan left on his bank card, but he is unwilling to work for others. "After working for someone else, you still want wealth and freedom? What a joke. I don't have to look at other people's faces now. ”
Now Zhang Qiaoqiao is 28 years old, has no house, no car, and no fixed job, "I'm not afraid of your jokes, I have a few thousand yuan in my card." But he is satisfied with his current situation: "I can be unemployed and light, I can live my whole life without working." It can be relied not only on parents, but also on parents' parents, parents' parents' parents. There may not be much left of the family property now, but at least our family is glorious. ”
"If you really need anything, just call my dad, they still owe me a house in Beijing, which is worth more than ten million now."
The house Zhang said in his mouth was said in an interview in October 2011 that his parents were required to buy a house in Beijing in full, otherwise he would not be admitted to the doctorate. This caused great controversy at the time.
But now, Zhang's thinking has changed a lot: "12 years ago, I was enthusiastic about Beijing Hukou Beijing house, but now it's completely the other way around, I don't have the idea of buying a house at all. ”
Compared with the wanton bragging of his youth, Zhang Qiongqiao has become a little reticent now, and has lost his desire for the world. Living in a rental house, never ordering takeout, used to going to a fast food restaurant alone and spending 10 yuan to solve a lunch, away from crowds, away from socializing. Zhang Qiongqiao said: "If I can do it again, I will still be Li Bai, An can destroy the brow and bend the waist, so that I can't be happy?" ”
In the eyes of Professor Zhang Yuehui, a university teacher of Zhang, Zhang has a strong ability to learn independently, but his ability to live independently is very poor. Zhang Yuehui said: "I should give him a piece of advice: at this age, you can no longer hesitate, what to decide, don't lie down." He didn't take off, he didn't fall, he may really be an aircraft that can travel thousands of miles, but you didn't get off the runway, he's still taxiing on the runway. ”
Inside and out
What happened between the high-profile study "rush" and the mediocre life later on? Perhaps, Professor Zhang Yuehui revealed something the key, "everything is arranged by his father." You can't eat three meals a day, what else do you study? ”
In fact, the poor self-care ability of life is only one aspect, and judging from his subsequent words and deeds, his psychological state is not mature.
Of course, it would not be fair to blindly accuse Zhang Qiongqiao, after all, he was indeed too young at that time. If it is an ordinary child, he may still be coquettish in the arms of his parents, while he has to study mathematical analysis and advanced algebra at university. In other words, while frequently "skipping" in learning, Zhang Qiongqiao was "repeating grades" in other aspects, but he and his parents did not realize it at the time.
The famous educator Ye Shengtao once said: "Education is agriculture, not industry. "In human growth, fast is not necessarily good, and ripening may not really be mature. For education, for the growth of children, we should still be more in awe of the law and science.
For Zhang, 28 years old is still an age full of possibilities, and his starting point is already much higher than most people, not at all to the extent of "lying flat". As long as you come out of self-pity and make a steady effort, life is still full of hope.
Zhang Qiongqiao's life experience has actually given many parents who are keen on "rushing" and "chicken babies" a warning: life will not be wonderful all the way because of "rushing", and the fast-forward life is at the cost of depriving children of childhood and adolescence, and these "debts" eventually need to be repaid.
Comprehensive from Jiupai News, The Paper (Special Commentator: Tutu Velvet)
Editor: Chen Wen
Responsible editor: Chen Min