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On March 24, education influencer Zhang Xuefeng (张雪峰) died suddenly in Suzhou from cardiac arrest. He was only 41 years old.
On the morning of the day he died, he’d already broadcast a livestream and completed a run. His March running total had already passed 70km, according to his WeChat Moments.
For readers of this newsletter, Zhang Xuefeng is a familiar name. He is one of China’s most recognisable internet celebrities, and has made a name for himself as a “gaokao college application planning advisor” (高考志愿规划师).
On Weibo, one post captured what many were feeling about his sudden death:
“A life of such theatrical flair ended by a sudden and brutal blow.
Whatever you thought of him, you cannot help but shudder at this grim fate.”
“富有戏剧色彩的人生，最终以决然而突兀的一击结束。无论对这个人观感如何，都不能不为命运之严酷森冷而战栗。”
Zhang came from modest beginnings.
He grew up in a small town in Heilongjiang Province, called Fuyu County (富裕县). Fuyu in Chinese means rich, but ironically this town was very poor. At his family’s most strapped, their combined monthly income was just 600 yuan when Zhang was growing up.
After finding fame and wealth, Zhang often joked of just how poor his childhood was:
“Some struggle to put food on the table…
But back then my family didn’t even have a table to put food on!”
有人穷得叮当响，那时我是穷到响都没有！
Related
Zhang attended Zhengzhou University, which is not one of China’s most prestigious but an achievement for Zhang to get into given where he came from. He studied water supply and drainage engineering (给排水工程). Which was completely irrelevant to the rest of his career. After graduating, he began his career in postgraduate entrance exam tutoring.
He got his first taste of online fame in 2016, when he produced the video “Understanding China’s 34 Top Universities in Seven Minutes” (七分钟解读34所985高校).
It went viral, garnering millions of views. Speaking in his distinctive northeastern accent, Zhang took the boring and confusing topic of university profiles and broke it down into a string of jokes and one-liners with the timing and delivery of a stand-up comic.
That formula of straight-talking, simple, entertaining, and helpful transformed him from an ordinary exam tutor into an internet celebrity.
In the years that followed, Zhang capitalised on that fame and built a successful education business. Many criticised him for “making money off people’s anxieties” (靠焦虑来赚钱). But for millions of parents he offered a lifeline to navigate the pressures of academic results, university choices, and graduate employment.
He encouraged students to opt for employability, high pay, and job security over personal interest, passion, or ideals. Niche subjects, according to Zhang, had narrow career prospects, low wages, and were “dead-end” fields to be avoided.
So Zhang was no stranger to controversy.
In 2024, he caused an uproar when he discouraged students from majoring in humanities, saying:
“If my child insists on studying journalism, I’ll knock them out cold.”
“孩子非要报新闻学，我一定把他打晕”
…
“Every humanities degree will lead to a job in the service industry. At the end of the day, what you do is just sucking up to people. “
“所有文科都是服务业，总结为一个舔字”
He famously dismissed biology, chemistry, environmental science, and materials science as “pitfall majors” (天坑专业). And he even discouraged youngsters from becoming diplomats.
But behind the provocative online persona was a man who couldn’t stop. Back in June 2023, Zhang was admitted to hospital with symptoms of extreme exhaustion, chest tightness, and heart palpitations.
He led an intense life of overwork, poor diet, and lack of sleep, while also being a keen runner, putting his body under immense and sustained stress.
He often shared on social media how tired he felt, like this post in April 2021:
“Am I tired? Of course. Can I take a break? Of course not. Am I afraid of overworking to death?
No. Why do I push myself like this? Because go big or go home. I owe it to everyone who put their faith in me.”
“累么？累！不能休息么？不能！你就不怕猝死么？不怕！为什么要这样？做事情，要么就不做，要做，就做好！对得起每一个信任你的人！”
Despite the controversies of Zhang and what’s he’s said over the years, the outpouring on social media following his death was overwhelming, and mostly positive.
According to the excellent and timely Bumingbai (不明白播客), Zhang’s death generated over 1 billion posts on Weibo, over 5 billion on Douyin, and over 80,000 articles on WeChat. And on the day of his funeral in Suzhou, tens of thousands of people reportedly turned up to pay their respects in person — images of which were quickly censored online.
So for all the people Zhang upset, there were many more who were grateful for his honesty, directness, and help in navigating China’s competitive and unforgiving education system.
And that’s what we’re discussing this week.
Favourite Five
1. 透支 tòu zhī
overdraw, overextend
他无限透支自己的身体，却偏偏不敢停 - He was burning the candle at both ends, yet he didn’t dare to take a break. [1]
Related:
疲惫 pí bèi – tired, exhausted
2. 玩命 wán mìng
risk one’s life, go all out recklessly
长期这么干，等于玩命 - Doing this long-term is basically committing slow suicide.
Related:
拼命 pīn mìng – to give it your all, desperately
3. 戛然而止 jiá rán ér zhǐ
an abrupt end, stop suddenly
也有人被这种“戛然而止”击中——”原来人不是到老了才会死，人是随时都会死的” - Others were struck by how his life was brought to an abrupt end — “So it turns out people don’t only die when they’re old. People can die at any moment.” [1]
Related:
戛然收场 jiá rán shōu chǎng – come to an abrupt end
4. 救命稻草 jiù mìng dào cǎo
lifesaving straw, last resort
从被学生看不起的愣头青老师，变成数百万家长的救命稻草 - He went from an inexperienced teacher looked down on by his own students to the last hope for millions of parents. [3]
5. 语不惊人死不休 yǔ bù jīng rén sǐ bù xiū
won’t stop until something shocking is said, always says something striking
张雪峰有时语不惊人死不休，例如，“孩子非要报新闻学，我一定把他打晕” - Zhang Xuefeng would sometimes pick the most outrageous thing to say. Take his stance on journalism: “If my child insists on majoring in journalism, I would knock him out.” [2]
Consuming the Conversation
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Useful words
6. 猝然 cù rán
suddenly, abruptly
谁也不曾想到，这个始终以精力充沛的形象出现在镜头前、直播间里的人，会以这样猝然的方式告别 - No one could have imagined that a man who always appeared so full of life on camera and in his livestreams would bid the world such a sudden and final farewell. [2]
Related:
猝死 cù sǐ – sudden death
7. 消耗 xiāo hào
to consume, to drain
高强度的工作与运动叠加，对他的身体造成了巨大的消耗 - The compounded stress of a demanding job and intense workouts took a massive toll on his body. [1]
Related:
耗尽 hào jìn – to exhaust, to use up completely
8. 拧巴 nǐng ba
conflicted, internally torn
他那种想停下却不敢停下的拧巴，却让人感到具体而熟悉 - His inner struggle of being stuck between burnout and the fear of letting go feels strikingly real and all too common. [1]
9. 功利 gōng lì
utilitarian, driven by self-interest
有人说他功利短视，把教育讲成了“找工作指南” - Some criticised him for being short-sighted and overly utilitarian, as he reduced education to a tool for job-hunting. [1]
Related:
功利化 gōng lì huà – to approach sth in a utilitarian way
10. 苛刻 kē kè
harsh, strict
相较之下，张雪峰对自己却很苛刻 - In comparison, Zhang Xuefeng is very strict with himself. [1]
11. 讣告 fù gào
obituary, death notice
直到晚上，头像灰了，讣告来了 - When the evening arrived, his profile picture turned grey with the posting of the obituary. [3]
12. 厄运 è yùn
misfortune, bad luck
所以这一次，厄运还是出手了 - So this time, the stroke of fate hit him. [3]
