A blogger posts screenshots of an interview with a high school student who’d just finished his exams, who says his wish is cancelling one-day weekends, unpaid overtime, make-up work days, and the 9 RMB delivery fee for KFC. And also screenshots of KFC on the delivery app, where it shows they really did cancel the delivery fee.
Comments say, “OMG he is the Emperor of Gaokao.”
“I just took a look and it’s real. It’s free delivery from 10AM to 8PM!! This is the hero we need!”
“Why is today not a Thursday T_T”
On the 6th of June, in Hunan, when the dragon boat rowing team was rowing, they accidentally hit a big fish with their oar. Netizens call for it to be “returned” to “nature”, “quickly”. (姜它放茴大孜然, 要筷 = a series of homophones for ginger, funnel, and cumin, and chopsticks)
Comments say, “Hahahaha, what a big surprise!”
“This fish is special, they should put it back.”
“Fish: I knew I shouldn’t have gotten too curious!”
Under the hashtag #Warning: These rice dumpling strings may be poisonous, Sina Hotspot writes, “Midsummer Festival is almost upon us, and soft, sweet rice dumplings are a necessity. But you need a lot of knowledge to enjoy your dumplings with safety and security.
As our traditional foods have become industrialised and their packaging has gotten fancier and fancier, even rice dumpling strings have a lot behind them.
Remember to avoid chemical fibre strings and plastic strings.
Natural fibre strings are comparatively much safer, like palm tree leaf, linen, or cotton. When natural fibres are burned, they smell like burning paper, and produce black or grey, powdery ash which is very fine and soft.
Chemical fibre strings are much less safe, like nylon, polyester, or polypropylene are high-molecule compounds, and when heated, they can produce formaldehyde, dichloromethane, and other poisonous compounds.
Other brightly coloured plastic strings also has added chemical elements, and heat exposure could cause the plastic and colouring in them to contaminate the rice dumplings, causing a buildup of harmful elements in your body if you consume it, negatively impacting your health. These are the most dangerous.
If you burn plastic strings, it will release a strong, pungent smell, and melt and drip like wax.
Jiangxu Province’s Fire Department reminds consumers that although poisonous compounds may be produced in the cooking of rice dumplings, they’ll only exist in relative small quantities and there’s no need to worry.
But out of concern for your health, you should still not buy this type of dumplings, nor use these strings when making your own dumplings at home. Do your best to use natural fibres like cotton or linen.
How do you go about choosing what rice dumplings to buy?
Jiangsu Province Quality Testing Bureau suggests: Buy your dumplings from well-known brands with good reviews.
Next, pay attention to the quality of the ingredients. Good rice dumplings should be made using fresh, hygienic ingredients, like meat, in order to ensure the right texture and nutrition. At the same time, check if the packaging is intact, make sure there’s no damage or warping. Lastly, take a look at the best-by date and suggested storage method, like whether it needs to be refrigerated.
Rice dumplings are fragrant, soft, smooth, and flavourful. While enjoying your dumplings, please make sure not to overeat or you’ll get indigestion. You should pair it with cool, refreshing drinks like tea or juice to help with digestion.
With Midsummer Festival drawing near, rice dumplings are selling hot. We’ll remind all the consumers out there to put quality first when choosing products, double check the manufacturer, place of manufacture, production license number, production date, best-by date and other information, and pick a suitable product.”
Comments say, “Lol, that was a hell of a wall of text with no pictures. I feel like I time-travelled to 20 years ago.”
“I’ve never seen any rice dumplings made with plastic strings. Do you mom make you them?”
“You’re gonna die either way, might as well eat first.”
A blogger reposts someone else’s post, “Fat Cat got lovesick and killed himself, and a bunch of people ordered takeout to commemorate him, cyberbullied Tang Zhu, spammed the screens on Time Square, and refused to believe police announcements.
A high school girl wore a pretty dress to her exams, and got rumours made up about her and got cyberbullied. She had an emotional breakdown and gave up on her exams, and a bunch of people are demanding why can’t she just be chill.
Wow, you guys are doing great.”
And the blogger writes, “Yeah, Fat Cat just lost his life. Us girls had to give up on our exams!”
Comments say, “These gossipy passersby aren’t that morally upright, but they didn’t do anything illegal. But this girl wore a short dress to her exams, like she was trying to cyberbully herself. I suggest law enforcement deal with her.”
“Nobody even read the police announcements for the Fat Cat case. I guess us True Love Warriors are like that.” [A term originally created by people who enjoy very sweet, conflict-free romances, which then became a derogatory term for people who think it’s okay to do anything in the name of love.]
“She has enough free time to scroll weibo while the exams are ongoing? And she says she’s gonna give up? We all know what’s up.”
“What the fuck are these thumb watermelons. They’re so disgusting.”
Comments say, “These thumb watermelons are meant for pretty girls to pose with while taking selfies. You’re not supposed to eat them XD”
“I thought these were the watermelon gum candy we got for 10 cents each back in the day.”
“It’s just new, is all.”
“I feel like a lot of people don’t understand the value of Zhang Xuefeng [famous career counsellor] at all. Zhang Xuefeng’s value isn’t in how he helps you pick your major or get a good diploma at all, but giving you a “clear, specific, and highly executable life plan”.
Picking a school or a major is just the appetiser. The key is figuring out, based on your family background, what kind of school and major will help you down the path that’s going to work out for you. This kind of knowledge is basically non-existent on the Chinese market right now.
For example, a blogger just now thought that he dropped out of college to go backpacking, washing dishes in America and teaching in Africa, and ended up founding a successful business. There are a ton of IT doctorates and journalism Master’s Degree holders in his company, so Zhang Xuefeng’s ideas probably don’t work out as great as people think.
It seems like he’s got a point, but the problem is, “dropping out of college to go backpacking and then starting your own business” is not a path that would occur to most people.
Most people graduate high school, don’t even go to uni, and go straight to a sweatshop production line. Would they go backpacking in America? I can promise that “going to America” or Africa just isn’t among most people’s options.
Either go into a factory or go back to farming. At most, they might run a small store or restaurant.
A path that you think is entirely unremarkable might be extremely key choices in life.
I have very strong feelings about this because a couple of years ago, I wrote a report about whether Yang Guofu mala tang [spicy stew] and Zhang Liang mala tang were relative. Honestly, whether they were relatives or not, most everyone doing mala tang in Dongbei back in the day came from the same village. They all knew each other. And village that created countless mala tang brands is Bin County in Harbin.
So the question is, how did such a tiny town in Harbin create so many mala tang geniuses, to the point that they’ve monopolised all the mala tang in China? Because they’re just naturally gifted at making mala tang? Is it a local tradition? Are there government subsidies for this field?
I thought of many possibilities, but in the end, the answer was very simple—as soon as the first guy got successful, others joined in.
For example, Yang Guofu didn’t actually help out Zhang Liang mala tang at all. He didn’t provide any funding or technical support, but I still think there was some very key indirect help. And that is the fact that Yang Guofu mala tang exists at all.
Yes, you got it right. I think just the fact that Yang Guofu mala tang became well-known is a type of help in and of itself.
Zhang Liang has said in an interview before, “It’s because he did mala tang first that we chose this project. We thought it had a low barrier of entry, we could afford to invest in it, and there was a future here.”
A lot of people think of help as only giving money or teaching skills, but in a market economy, “This thing can be successful” is, in itself, extremely valuable information. “Which of my relatives became successful by doing this thing,” is also extremely valuable information. What about, “Which of my relatives were able to afford a BMW in three years by doing a thing?” That’s not just extremely valuable information, that’s adamant determination to start a business plus an already made business plan. This is more effective than any MBA course or published book from some CEO.
If my relatives can run a successful mala tang business, that means that market is into mala tang as a product. And I know roughly what kind of family background this relative has, so it’s easy to deduce the barrier of entry and business strategy involved here.
People are very numb to “distant success” but extremely sensitive to “nearby success.”
Why are there so many business owners from Wenzhou? Because they have a bunch of family and friends who own their own business, so their young people know this path exists. Why do so many people from Chaoshan go to Africa? Because a bunch of older people in their family own shops in Africa.
I’ve seen a travel influencer who ran into a young businessman from Chaoshan overseas. Interestingly, this guy didn’t have a country he wanted to go to in mind. He just looked up which countries were easy to go to with a Chinese passport, and visited Morocco, Armenia, Turkey, and Albania, and eventually settled on Iran.
That is to say, in his mind, he was already set on “starting a business somewhere overseas” and all he had to do was choose a specific location.
Imagine, if it was an inland young man instead, freshly graduated from college, do you think his life choices would include “go open a shop in Africa”? Would he commit to travelling to a bunch of countries to check things out and pick his favourite one?
A lot of Ningbo people are in the import/export business, a lot of them go overseas. A lot of people start in on it without even owning a computer first. Why are they so brave? Because their elders have already figured out this path for them. Everyone can see where to go.
If you think “backpacking through America” is a very ordinary path, you are beyond wrong. If you were truly on your own, you would never make such a choice. Maybe you live in Shanghai, maybe your friends and family have business overseas, maybe you met a teacher that returned from overseas. All of this information has been subtly influencing you even though you might not have noticed, to let you know that such choices existed in this world.
For a lot of students, the key in changing their life might be being pointed in this direction or the other. Before that, they might not even have imagined that such a possibility existed. And the point of Zhang Xuefeng is that he breaks through the information echo chamber for them.
For example, before Zhang Xuefeng brought it up, who knew about a 1-year Master’s Degree program to whitewash your diploma? It doesn’t matter if you can’t get into a good university. Your family can pay you to go overseas and get a 1 year Master’s Degree. Most Chinese people have no idea how hard oversea schools are to get into, and don’t know whether these Master’s Degrees are any good. Most companies only look at the school, and they have no idea how that school’s grades or curriculum works. So your diploma instantly becomes a postgrad from a famous overseas uni. While others are still taking their first and second attempt at getting into a Chinese postgrad program, you’ve probably already graduated.
Do most families know about this strategy? A couple of years ago, not even HR knew about it.
Everyone can see the difference caused by unfair distribution of education resources, but they don’t see the power in information imbalance.”
Comments say, “HR aren’t dumb either. All pointless Master’s Degrees are treated like third-rate uni bachelor’s degrees. But the ones from a few years ago have already gotten government jobs. What a strange thing fate is.”
“All four major package delivery companies came from Zhejiang, Tonglu, so they’re often called the Tonglu Gang and owns 50% of the Chinese delivery market. That’s the same idea, isn’t it?”
“It’s true. The reason we put so much resources into developing nuclear weapons is because “nuclear weapons can be made”. We can’t devote all our resources into making fusion, because you can’t prove we can make fusion with what we have already. If it turns out we need some math equation or something that’ll only get discovered 100 years from now, then we’re basically playing with legos that are missing pieces.”
Under the hashtag #Zhang Xuefeng’s 2026 counselling service is already sold out, a blogger writes, “Is Zhang Xuefeng’s 17,999 RMB counselling fee worth it or not?
Zhang Xuefeng is not God, so he still needs to make money. Specifically, make money off of his fans.
The method he chose was to put out a 17,999 RMB college application counselling service. And that’s the discounted price. Three years ago, the same service only cost 14,999 RMB. As Zhang Xuefeng’s influence and popularity rose, so did his prices, and he’s already all sold out.
Sky high prices means that so long as he gets 1000 customers this year, he only needs to appear for a few minutes with each person and set them up with other employees for further questions, and he can make 15 million RMB. And college application is just the tip of the iceberg of everything he does.
For a long time, poor students have viewed Zhang Xuefeng as the “Trump of Gaokao” [that is, “no one knows more about college application than me”, not anything else associated with Trump], the “Messiah of applications”. His expertise doesn’t just present in his understanding and knowledge of test-based education, and more in his interpretation of the education system. A lot of netizens remark that, “If Zhang Xuefeng had existed when I was applying to college, I might have had a second chance at life.”
I don’t know whether Zhang Xuefeng would’ve been able to save all these students if he had existed earlier, but right now, his exorbitant consulting fees has made a lot of so-called “proletariats” realise they were only ever sheep, and began to turn against Zhang Xuefeng.
Zhang Xuefeng is just a product of the times.
For a long time, we’ve associated education with “charity”, “great” and “fairness”. Nobody wanted to admit, at least not openly, that China’s education system is still extremely imbalanced. Education can’t be for-profit, so it can only be converted into power, school districts, and hukou—they’re all the appendixes on higher education. Or at least, they’re a tumour that prevents us from separating the good and the bad.
An unsolvable problem made the problem hard to even discuss, so this subject has seemed increasingly problematic. The fact that acceptance is a black box, exams are involuted, education is test-based, all of these add together to make it much harder for poor students with no access to information to leap over their hurdles.
Zhang Xuefeng’s purpose exists in eliminating the information imbalance when it comes to choosing your majors. He effortlessly analyses schools and majors, knows acceptance scores off hand, and no matter how well-researched he must be, he still must dedicate a lot of time and energy into this. This is the cost he has to pay for his professionalism.
His skill at application, plus his exceptional ability to express himself, plus his understanding of public opinion and ability to direct it, plus just a little dash of luck and the opportunities that the times have fed him, has created today’s Zhang Xuefeng.
Right now, Zhang Xuefeng has been pushed to the crest of the waves of time. For people in this position, the most valuable thing they have is time, to the point that he can no longer do in-person consulting, but instead only use his image to sponsor things. It still brings in the same profit, if not more. And making less money just means he’s doing charity or encroaching on market share by giving up profits.
Our country has never had much acceptance for tertiary industries. People are jealous of any success there, even though it’s a natural trend in a market. Zhang Xuefeng is able to help consumers save time, help college recruiters save energy, and find the best choice. He didn’t set his consulting fees himself, it was decided on by the market. Whether it’s worth it is up to the people who are paying for this service.
As a public personality, Zhang Xuefeng has posted plenty of lessons online. Whether it’s because he truly wants to do something for students or just because he wants fame, he’s given out plenty of information through his free classes.
You have to understand that Zhang Xuefeng doesn’t have a duty or responsibility to help people pick the best majors for them. It’s never clear at all whose responsibility that is, exactly. It’s because nobody is taking on this duty that Zhang Xuefeng exists. He is the HSC [hematopoietic stem cell] in our immune system.
More interestingly, our polarised public hasn’t fought over this at all. Most people understand and approve of Zhang Xuefeng. Even though they have different levels of wealth and different desires, they still all seem to think that Zhang deserves this money. Right now, Zhang Xuefeng isn’t a capitalist, but a modern-day saint.
This strange phenomenon can only be explained with one answer. When people who are at each other’s throats all the time suddenly unit, it can only mean that they have a common enemy.”
Comments say, “It’s not that he’s getting more popular. He’s having to spend more money on buying trending hashtags and paying people to write his posts. He’s gotta add those costs to his prices.”
“You can get the same answer from an AI in a few minutes. Why would you spend tens of thousands for this service? Do these people own gold mines or are their brains structured differently from us normal people?”
“When I saw the article, I thought just 10K is much more reasonable. But then I looked it up and saw there were 61 sessions. 17,999 / 61 = 295.0655738. It’s only 300 bucks a session. That’s not too bad, is it?”
“Things you can do after your exams:
Get circumcised
Get a driver’s license
Straighten your teeth
Treat your pimples
Do pull ups and push ups
Listen to English and practice your pronunciation.
Things you should avoid doing after your exams:
Drinking. Drinking at too young of an age is not good for you, especially not while partying with friends.
Smoking. This is an addiction for life. Avoid it if you can.
Overeating, staying up too late, dancing at nightclubs.
Having unprotected sex. No need to go into this one. Times are changing, and kids these days know everything, but they don’t protect themselves properly during sex at all. We need to talk about this openly instead of shying away all the time.”
Comments say, “If your family background is even remotely okay, don’t work during your holidays. The three months after your college entrance exams is the most free period you’re ever going to get in your life. You don’t have old people to take care of, you don’t have family you have to support, you don’t have kids you gotta worry about. Go travel. Enjoy life.”
“The first thing I did after my exams was sign up for tutoring for repeating a year.”
“I can’t believe circumcision is number 1.”
“A student realised 10 minutes before exams started that he didn’t have his ID. The police print new ID for him in under 3 minutes. What a good job!”
Comments say, “Just tell him to go home. Even if he graduated, he’d still be a goober.”
“I’ve been in a tourist group with two uni students that overslept and made the whole car wait for them for 2.5 hours.”
[not anything else associated with Trump]<— This part made me laugh!