Zhang Xuefeng was the most popular internet celebrity in China in 2023. At the beginning of the year, he guided students online on how to fill out their college entrance examination preferences and advised them not to apply for majors such as journalism and foreign languages. His remarks sparked heated discussions on the Chinese internet and directly affected the choices students made in their college entrance examination applications after the exams concluded in June.
This article, based on the data from this year’s college entrance examination applications in Shandong Province, China, confirms the aforementioned speculation: Zhang Xuefeng’s comments had a significant impact on Chinese examinees. The cut-off scores for majors like journalism and foreign languages dropped significantly, while the scores for computer science, law, and other majors that Zhang Xuefeng advocated for saw a noticeable increase.
To verify the accuracy and robustness of the analysis, the article also selected college entrance examination application data from multiple provinces over several years, with conclusions consistent with the initial analysis.
Read more: WeChat (in Chinese)
By 2023-12-28: Clicks 10,000+; Likes 200+