Tsinghua University Photo: CFP

On the last day of the Spring Festival, a lion dance performance was held in a village in Yulin, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, to celebrate the admission of 14-year-old Guan Ziqin to China's renowned Tsinghua University. The junior middle-school student will not only study there for his bachelor's degree, but also plans to finish his doctoral degree at the school over the next eight years. This big news stirred up excitement throughout the village and the entire region as Guan is not only the first middle school student from the region to be directly admitted to the prestigious school, he also will be the youngest person ever to attend the top university. 

Many netizens were also amazed by the news, praising the boy as "awesome," "gifted" and "the future of the motherland," while other young people said they admired him and also dreamed of becoming scientists in the future. 

In October 2022, the third-year student at Guolong Foreign Languages Middle School in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, received the admission letter informing him that he had been selected by the Shing-Tung Yau Mathematical Science Program for Training Leading Talents, becoming one of 50 candidates from across the country to obtain the honor. In spring of 2023, he will begin preparatory courses at Tsinghua University. After he passes the exams for these courses, he will begin his journey toward acquiring a three-year undergraduate degree and then a two-year master's and a three-year doctoral degree. As the program allows him to skip both high school and college (gaokao) entrance exams, Guan has become the envy of many Chinese students. 

According to Tsinghua University, examinees must pass seven tests before being admitted - a preliminary evaluation, comprehensive test, professional test, physical examination, finalist recognition, confirmation and preparatory training. The tests cover Chinese and English reading comprehension, math and physics, all math courses at both the junior and senior middle school levels, as well as the basic concepts of calculus, linear algebra and so on. So this is really something that only someone with true talent can achieve. 

Since the 1980s, several renowned institutions of higher learning have accepted extremely intelligent teenagers as students. In 1978, the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, East China's Anhui Province, established the Special Class for the Gifted Young, which has cultivated many young scientists for the country. Today, this new program targeting gifted students in their third year of junior middle school reflects the great importance China attaches to training top-notch personnel. 

However, while some netizens admired young talents like Guan, they also expressed concern about whether they can easily adapt to university life. Some suggested that the university should also pay attention to Guan's psychological health. 

Fortunately, Tsinghua University has already taken measures to ensure that young students have a smooth transition from relatively passive middle-school learning to the more active study need at university. During the preparatory period, all science courses will be taught in small classes with each subject set at three levels. This will allow students to experience different levels and styles of teaching, and lead them to actively think and explore in order to find their own pace of study. 

Allowing young talents to complete university education in advance will provide them with more time to conduct scientific research and produce technological results earlier. If China wants to achieve its goal of national revitalization through science and technology, it should certainly create a complete and tiered workforce of scientific personnel. The admission of Guan is just a good beginning, and he will become a role model for more students to pursue their dreams of becoming scientists to serve their motherland.