Zhao Juying's related enterprises at the door. Photo by Zheng Cailin
Recently, several videos posted by the social media account "Zhao Juying Family Education" have sparked controversy: Zhao Juying, a self-proclaimed family education expert, asked boys to smash their beloved toys and girls to throw comic books into the trash during home visits. Even install surveillance in the child's room.
This impersonal approach in the video was called "bullying education" by netizens, which sparked discussions in the outside world and questioned Zhao Juying's identity and the nature of the institution behind it.
In a public introduction on social media, Zhao Juying claimed to have published books, trained gifted children, and toured more than 1,000 lectures across the country.
An investigation by Southern Weekend reporters found that Zhao Juying's real identity is a retired teacher in Jiayuguan City, Gansu Province, and her son became famous for appearing on the stage of "Super Speaker". Today, Zhao Juying has become the founder of a commercial organization, selling online and offline courses in the form of short videos and live broadcasts, and the "prodigy" who has rarely appeared in the public eye has become a gimmick for selling courses and publicity.
On May 9, 2024, Southern Weekend visited Zhao Juying's company in Chongqing, but the other party declined to be interviewed.
"Bullying education" has caused controversy
On the short video platform, Zhao Juying has multiple matrix accounts such as "Zhao Juying Family Education", "Zhao Juying Talks about Education", and "Home Visit China". Among them, the two accounts of "Zhao Juying Family Education" and "Home Visit China" have the largest number of followers, with 87,000 and 290,000 respectively.
The widely controversial video was released in March 2024. At that time, Zhao Juying went to Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, to conduct a "home visit" to a family with a boy who was in junior high school. During the home visit, Zhao Juying found the boy's collection of toy figures, and Zhao Juying thought that these toys hindered the child's growth and would affect the grades, so she threw the box containing the toys on the ground and asked the boy to smash them with a hammer.
In the video, Zhao Juying constantly asks the boy what the meaning of these toys is. In addition, Zhao Juying also said in a stern tone: "If you can't get into high school, your life will be over, young man." The boy's room was equipped with a monitor, and Zhao Juying told the boy that she was monitoring it at all times and told him not to touch the toys again.
In a later video, Zhao Juying went to the home of a second-year junior high school girl in Meishan City, Sichuan Province, and asked the girl to throw many toys and comic books on the table into the trash, and severely reprimanded the girl.
In May 2024, Zhao Juying ridiculed a boy in an updated home visit video, causing controversy again. In response to the above video, Zhao Juying has not specifically responded to whether there is a pose.
Zhao Juying asked the boy to smash the figure. Screenshot of the video
"As soon as she entered the door, she accused and criticized the child, and she regarded herself as an expert, which I found very incredible." Wu Qiufen, a professor at Hefei Normal University and a consultant to the Hefei Family Education Society, noticed the controversy over "bullying education", but was not too surprised. "It's not just bullying education, all kinds of things are sought after."
She said, "Kiss his teacher and believe in his way", in the video, she blames and criticizes the child as soon as she enters the door, which will erect an invisible barrier between herself and the child's psychology; Moreover, each child has their own small universe, their personality characteristics, behavioral habits, and family situations are different, and it is the child's nature to love to play, and appropriate intervention can be carried out, but not arbitrary and rude intervention. "You see, when he first entered the door, the child enthusiastically held the expert's hand, but later, the child lowered his head, his face turned from sunny to cloudy, and he no longer communicated with her." She said.
Wu Qiufen said that the country promulgated the Family Education Promotion Law in 2021, and more and more attention is being paid to family education. However, education is a discipline and is very professional, not everyone understands family education, and not everyone can be an expert in family education. Moreover, the above-mentioned promotion law clearly states that the parents or other guardians of minors are the main body responsible for the implementation of family education, and family education shall respect the laws of minors' physical and mental development and individual differences, respect the personal dignity of minors, and protect minors' privacy and personal information.
Gifted children
In the profile of Zhao Juying's related account, she claimed to have published two books, "Genius is Education" and "Genius Godchild Method", and relied on the "Genius Godchild Law" to train her son Du Zhaozechuan into a genius.
"Genius Godchild Method" was published in 2012, and the authors are Zhao Juying and Du Zhaozechuan. In the introduction of this book, Du Zhaozechuan is a child prodigy, since the age of 4, he has been a volunteer translator on the Great Wall, serving nearly 20,000 foreign tourists, and celebrities all over the world; Under the upbringing of my mother, I skipped a grade in primary school, taught myself junior high school courses, and read very extensively; Self-taught and fluent in English and Spanish, he has participated in CCTV programs many times, and has received invitations from 6 countries to study abroad. His greatest dream was to go to Harvard.
The book also said that in the past ten years, Zhao Juying's educational philosophy and methods have been well received by parents and friends, and have been widely spread on the Internet.
"With us, this teacher is very famous." When the controversial video of Zhao Juying's home visit appeared on the hot search, a netizen in Jiayuguan City recognized it at a glance, so he sent a message to his family to find out if there was a book "Genius is Taught" at home. Sure enough, the book was found on the bookshelf in her room. Around 2007, this netizen was studying at Yingbin Road Primary School in Jiayuguan City, and many years later, she still remembers this teacher vividly.
In my memory, Zhao Juying became famous for cultivating a child prodigy, giving speeches everywhere, participating in shows, and writing a book about her parenting experience. At that time, each student in the same grade had a copy. In my impression, Zhao Juying's education and handling style are relatively strict, so it is not particularly surprising that her controversy broke out many years later.
In that year, there were a lot of reports in the media around Du Zhaozechuan's prodigy deeds. According to the report, Zhao Juying was admitted to the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Hexi University (then known as Zhangye Normal College) in 1988; From 1999 to 2010, he was engaged in Chinese teaching in Yingbin Road Primary School in Jiayuguan City.
However, unlike Zhao Juying's move of smashing the figure in the video, in the previous report, Du Zhaozechuan not only loves learning, but also a senior player of the online game "QQ Speed" and "Light Speed", is good at all kinds of chess skills, obsessed with cars, and knows the ranking, logo, model, performance, and origin of the world's famous cars.
When he grew up, Du Zhaoze's dream of going to Harvard did not come true. His social media revealed that he attended Binghamton University in the United States and shared his life as a DJ in the United States on social media.
Live streaming of classes
In recent years, media reports about Du Zhaozechuan have almost disappeared, and the deeds of this former prodigy mostly appear in Zhao Juying's "selling classes" propaganda.
In the official WeChat of the Chongqing Gansu Chamber of Commerce, the career of Zhao Juying is now introduced. Zhao Juying is the founder of Luzhou Midsummer Light Culture Media Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Midsummer Light), the company is registered in Luzhou, rooted in the mountain city of Chongqing, established in 2023, formerly known as Beijing Jinzhi International Education Technology Co., Ltd., which was established in Beijing in 2019. In the introduction, the company claims to be a first-line education brand in the field of young people in China.
An introduction to some of the courses of Midsummer Light. Screenshots of the network
The office address of Midsummer Light is located in an office building in Shapingba District, Chongqing. On the afternoon of May 9, 2024, Southern Weekend visited the company and found that it was surrounded by training institutions, and Midsummer Light occupied a small office in one of them.
At the door of the office hangs a plaque of the 4th "Luzhou Midsummer Light Culture Media Co., Ltd. Director Unit" issued by the Chongqing Gansu Chamber of Commerce in January 2024, and the front desk is marked with a conspicuous blue and white advertising font "Read masterpieces in a smarter way", and the door is posted with "Do not disturb during live broadcast". There is no content on the company's front desk bulletin board and display cabinet.
At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Zhao Juying, who had short brown hair, came to the office, and in the face of the short video controversy and questions about education and training courses, Zhao Juying expressed her anger: "I didn't do (sell classes), we did live broadcasts, (you see) these are all live broadcast equipment." ”
"Recently, unknown people have been coming to harass me." Zhao Juying said.
In the WeChat public account "Midsummer Light Cloud Classroom", which is certified as the light of summer, Zhao Juying's books, courses, as well as learning and career planning, high-end case consulting, summer camps, winter camps and other products are on the shelves. Among them, the story of prodigies and books is still introduced.
Among the courses, the "family education series of courses" is the mainstream, which is mainly divided into three categories: "habits", "morality" and "family", and the fees for various courses range from 199 to 299 yuan. The summer camp project is a "high-end consulting service", with a fee of 10,000 yuan and a winter camp project of 10,000 yuan.
In addition to carrying out summer and winter camps and family education services, Midsummer Light has also launched online marketing business, launched marketing and publicity in a number of short videos, and created personal IP.
Southern Weekly reporter Li Zailei Southern Weekly interns Ye Leilei and Zheng Cailin
Editor-in-charge: He Haining