{"id":810,"date":"2025-10-10T10:40:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T03:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/akhliswrites.com\/?p=810"},"modified":"2025-10-10T10:40:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T03:40:48","slug":"the-history-professor-that-broke-the-internet-and-refused-fame-and-wealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/akhliswrites.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/10\/the-history-professor-that-broke-the-internet-and-refused-fame-and-wealth\/","title":{"rendered":"The History Professor That Broke the Internet and Refused Fame and Wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jiang Xueqin Teaching Gay Talese Research Method (Introduction)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Gp9Hv1PXx0o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One day a few months ago I saw someone&#8217;s comment on YouTube. I thought it was a short clip showing a Chinese professor talking in fluent English about history of the world. And I traced back to his real YouTube channel, e.g. Predictive History. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Months later I found his Substack newsletter. To it I subscribed immediately. And today I checked his latest newsletter and found a clear and earth-shattering headline: <a href=\"https:\/\/predictivehistory.substack.com\/p\/why-i-refuse-to-get-rich\">&#8220;Why I Refuse to Get Rich&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amazing. I thought. This man is really a gem. In it, he explained why he did not monetize his extremely popular YouTube channel. Someone mentioned he could have gone rich. The channel might have generated thousands of dollars if he wants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Prof. Jiang Xueqin wrote in the newsletter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>That would be my dream, but that would destroy my vision.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>What? Are you sure? I mean, he really knows what he goes after. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He later told his story with money and fame. He used to be in such a situation. Having lots of money and going abroad and all. But he emphasized that money made him &#8220;antsy and anxious&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But he is not himself. It is his wife that encouraged him to stay consistent to his faith though at first she told him to upload his lectures on YouTube. But monetizing is a different story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So by uploading his content on YouTube, he gained popularity which enables him to spread his messages and knwoledge even faster to more people around the world. But he is so intelligent and self aware of the dangers of too much money and fame. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have no idea who he really is, let us take a look at his short bio here courtesy of DeepSeek. LOL! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor Jiang Xueqin is a prominent Chinese-American journalist, author, and educator, best known for his work in critiquing and attempting to reform China&#8217;s education system. His career has evolved from journalism to on-the-ground educational projects. He holds a bachelor&#8217;s degree in history from Harvard University. Suprisingly, he has been a journalist for publications like the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>, <em>The New York Times<\/em>, and <em>The New Yorker<\/em>. He later moved into direct educational work as a teacher and administrator in China. Which explains why he talked about Gay Talese and literary journalism in the video above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jiang is a vocal critic of the Chinese &#8220;gaokao&#8221; (the national college entrance exam) system. He argues that its intense focus on rote memorization and high-stakes testing stifles creativity, critical thinking, and genuine student well-being. He believes this system produces excellent test-takers but fails to cultivate innovators and well-rounded individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a response to what he sees as the system&#8217;s failures, Jiang has been a leading advocate for project-based learning (PBL) and student-centered education in China. <strong>At the High School Affiliated to Peking University<\/strong> he served as the Deputy Principal and led a pioneering initiative to introduce a project-based learning curriculum alongside the traditional exam-focused one. This was documented in his book. <strong>At Tsinghua International School<\/strong>, he continued his work in implementing innovative educational models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a former journalist, he also keeps writing. His experiences at the High School Affiliated to Peking University were chronicled in his Chinese-language book, <strong>\u300a\u9ad8\u8003\u72b6\u5143\u7684&#8221;\u4e0d\u6210\u529f&#8221;\u5b9e\u9a8c\u300b<\/strong> (The &#8220;Unsuccessful&#8221; Experiment with a Gaokao Top Scorer), which was later published in English as <strong>&#8220;The Wonder Years of Gao Yi.&#8221;<\/strong> The book details the challenges, resistance, and partial successes of trying to reform education from within a top Chinese school. The &#8220;unsuccessful&#8221; in the title reflects the immense difficulty of changing a deeply entrenched system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is the co-founder and International Program Director of the <strong>Global Citizen Foundation<\/strong>. Through this organization, he works to promote project-based learning and foster &#8220;glocal&#8221; (global and local) perspectives among students and teachers, not only in China but also in other countries like Bangladesh and the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jiang&#8217;s core argument is that the traditional East Asian model of education, while effective in achieving baseline literacy and high test scores, is inadequate for preparing students for the complexities of the 21st century. He emphasizes the need for education that develops:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Critical Thinking:<\/strong> The ability to analyze, question, and synthesize information.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Creativity:<\/strong> The capacity to generate new ideas and solutions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Collaboration:<\/strong> Skills to work effectively in teams.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Character and Empathy:<\/strong> Moral development and an understanding of global issues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>His work is not without controversy. Some people in China (including parents, teachers, and officials) believe the gaokao system, for all its flaws, is a fair and meritocratic path to social mobility. They see reforms as risky experiments that could jeopardize their children&#8217;s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is also accused of elitism. His models are often implemented in well-resourced or international schools, leading to criticisms that his ideas are not scalable or practical for the vast majority of Chinese students in the public system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jiang has also to face <strong>systemic resistance<\/strong>. As his book title suggests, he has faced significant institutional inertia and resistance from a system built entirely around exam preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prof. Jiang Xueqin is a pivotal figure at the intersection of education, journalism, and social change in China.<\/strong> He is best understood as a pragmatic idealist\u2014someone who deeply understands the Chinese system but is tirelessly working to inject elements of innovation and whole-person development into it, despite the formidable challenges. At least that is what DeepSeek told me. (*\/)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One day a few months ago I saw someone&#8217;s comment on YouTube. I thought it was a short clip showing a Chinese professor talking in fluent English about history of the world. And I traced back to his real YouTube channel, e.g. Predictive History. Months later I found his Substack newsletter. To it I subscribed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[550,549],"class_list":["post-810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news","tag-history-professor","tag-jiang-xueqin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/akhliswrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/akhliswrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/akhliswrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akhliswrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akhliswrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/akhliswrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":811,"href":"https:\/\/akhliswrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions\/811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/akhliswrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akhliswrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akhliswrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}