Following in the footsteps of 13 year-old “gifted child” Yan Xiaohan, who was admitted into Beijing University earlier this year, a child prodigy named Fan Shukai from Shanxi has likewise been admitted into another top-tier Chinese school, Tsinghua University. Instead of being showered with praise however, Fan’s mother claims he’s nothing special.
Fan Shukai was born in Hequ County, Shanxi Province. His father Fan Xiang is a normal member of the Hequ County traffic police, and his mother Wang Jing is a physics teacher at a junior high school. When Wang discovered that her son has a tremendous memory at the age of two, she began to teach him from an elementary school textbook. Wang also bought him a copy of “New Concept English” with which he practiced his listening skills. In addition to learning Chinese, mathematics and English, Fan also studied moral character, nature, science, society and other courses.
When Fan Shukai began school at 5 years old, he was already reading at a 4 grade level. Fan enrolled in junior high school at the age of seven and a half at which he continued his studies at a normal pace all the way to high school. Throughout his three years of high school, just about every teacher in every course would receive phone calls made by Fan seeking “assistance” as Fan would complete his homework the same day it was issued. When he was 13, he was admitted into Tsinghua University by taking the Gaokao examination; meanwhile other children his age have just graduated from elementary school and were about to enter junior high.
Although everyone considers Fan Shukai to be a “gifted child”, his mother claims the contrary: “I’m not being modest here, but my child is absolutely not a gifted child. There isn’t anything special about him; there are tens of thousands of children like him in China with a similar IQ and family circumstances. Children have a strong malleability to them and completely depend upon the guidance of adults around them. If they adopt bad habits when they are young, these habits cannot be easily rectified once they mature.”
Source: QQ
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Keywords: child prodigy Tsinghua University Shanxi child prodigy
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This fits nicely with the story that Chinese students study all day long, from 7 a.m. to 22:30 p.m. and still know nothing after years of doing so. Girls entering 'zhongxue' often have to cut off their hair because there will be no time to take care of long hair. I also think this mother is right and an above average student (but not a genius) can easily roll through the whole xiaoxue/zhongxue curriculum when learning efficiently, and this is where not only parents come in, but teachers as well. And textbooks. And a balance between dedicated time and spare time. But children are being spoilt on one hand and pushed to the limit on the other and finally decide it's easier to buy the answers and get high marks and then buy themselves a job. The result, after all, is the same. BTW... 'Fan also studied moral character'... do they have courses in that?
Oct 22, 2013 21:35 Report Abuse
Many 'gifted' children probably also have VERY poor social skills as well, and this in a country not known for the good social skills.
Oct 22, 2013 20:26 Report Abuse
Mum has hit the nail on the head there. Many children out there could be labelled as "gifted" if the parenting is handled right.
Oct 22, 2013 16:43 Report Abuse
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