The “inspirational story” of Huang Guoping, a native of Yilong, Sichuan, reveals the harsh living conditions of the Chinese underclass.
The acknowledgement of a doctoral dissertation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has ignited public opinion. The author’s detailed account of his difficult childhood and struggle for education was used by the official media to promote the story as a positive and inspiring one. However, the public believes that this is only a reflection of the reality of the lower class on the mainland, and that the incident reflects the government’s disregard for the lower class, and that behind the official media’s promotion is a cover-up of the government’s dereliction of duty. (By Huang Xiaoshan/Cheng Wen)
A screenshot of the dissertation of Huang Guoping, a doctoral student at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, went viral on Sunday (18), with the most widely watched being the acknowledgement section of his doctoral dissertation, detailing the author’s unfortunate childhood, from the loss of his mother at a young age, his father’s death in a car accident when he was a teenager, his persistent pursuit of education in poverty and sickness, and his arduous journey from a rural elementary school to Southwestern University and then to the Chinese Academy of Sciences to obtain his doctoral title.
Huang Guoping’s acknowledgement partly sells tragedy, triggering the resonance of the sons and daughters of the people at the bottom, but the vast majority of people are not as fortunate as he is, and even less able to attract public attention. (Screenshot of the paper)
The author’s experience, however, was widely publicized on Monday (19) by the official media Xinhua, People’s Daily and Wen Wei Po as an example of positive energy; and Huang Guoping also published the full text of his acknowledgement in various media.
According to Mr. Liu, a reporter for the former Southern Newspaper, Huang Guoping is only one of the very few lucky rural children, the vast majority of whom basically drop out of school to work. Many people regard Huang Guoping’s suffering as an inspirational story, but the root cause of his suffering actually reflects the hardships of life at the bottom and the government’s disregard for the people. And behind the so-called positive rhetoric is a cover and cover-up for the government’s dereliction of duty.
Mr. Liu said: he graduated from the doctorate four years, now Tencent well. That China’s compulsory education law, since July 1, 1986, the implementation of well, then he went to elementary school, junior high school, his mother left home, he went to work everywhere, then, the family this situation, where is the government ah? How did this become an inspirational story? This is clearly an accusation. He is lucky to have a PhD, but what about the vast majority of people? The majority of people in rural areas, more than 60% of them graduated from junior high school and went to work, so why can’t the sun shine on them?
Mr. Lin from Sichuan pointed out that Huang Guoping’s experience has become the focus because it resonates with many rural children. But with the increased publicity, the story has quickly become sensitive and could be officially shut down.
Mr. Lin said: this thing has caused everyone to empathize, so it has formed a craze well. I think that if the forward, the hype is too hot, the official will also be quickly blocked him. I think this is very normal, you know many places are not as developed as we thought, or the development of well. The rural areas are basically in this condition.
Ms. Liu, who works for a government department and is involved in grassroots work, also confirmed to the station that the poverty situation described by Huang Guoping is still very common in China. She pointed out that the problems of education, health care and pension are the root causes of the people’s oppression, and even though the country has declared that it has completely eliminated poverty, the phenomenon of not having money for medical treatment is still alarming and even continues to worsen.
Ms. Liu said: should the poor students in rural areas are like this, and it is more obvious. Inside the rural areas, medical care, education, pension, these things, so many people who are poor because of illness. My circle of friends have got a major disease without money waiting to die kind of. Every other period there are. There is also the problem of supporting the elderly in the countryside. Those old people, when they get sick, they can only let them die. I tell you, our poverty alleviation is all a numbers game.
Our reporter was not able to contact Huang Guoping himself to comment on the public opinion triggered by his ordeal. The government of Yilong County, Sichuan Province, where Huang is from, and the county education bureau did not respond to requests for an interview.
The Chinese Communist Party has been promoting positive energy and concealing the poor lives of the underclass in order to achieve its mission of whitewashing the situation. Civil society organizations that care for the underclass often avoid criticizing the government.
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