Recently, Harvard University has been at the center of international public opinion. And Jiang Yurong, a master's student at Harvard Kennedy School, has become a focal point. She delivered a speech at the Harvard graduation ceremony on May 29th, which was sought after by some Western leftist media and gained some likes on domestic TikTok, but soon, the global Chinese community, regardless of its stance, expressed strong dissatisfaction and anger towards her. Why is this? Perhaps, she and her words and deeds have exposed some deep-seated problems in Harvard, a top university.
The Dilemma of "Harvard's Son": Elite Education Disconnected from Reality?
Before discussing Jiang Yurong, let's first review her senior, Jeffrey Sachs, the "prodigy" in the economics field. Sachs went all the way from Harvard to a doctorate, and became a tenured professor at Harvard at the age of 28, which can be described as a "direct train." And this Sachs is a super "pro-China" person, even more enthusiastic about the Chinese Communist Party than some domestic "little pinks."
Around 2017, when the US president was first elected, China held a high-level development forum, inviting world-renowned economists. Six Nobel laureates in economics gathered together, criticizing the then new White House throughout the entire process. Sachs, as the representative of Harvard, even apologized to all the participants at the meeting, because Navarro and Bannon of the then White House were both Harvard graduates.
Even at Sachs' level, he still admits that the decline of globalization is inevitable. He believes that the then White House was just the "fruit," and the real root cause lies in income inequality. He divides Americans into two categories: one is well-educated and able to benefit from globalization and technological progress; the other is not well-educated, does not enjoy the dividends of globalization, and lives a dim life. The former feels that everything is fine, while the latter is angry, dissatisfied, and wants to destroy globalization.
Sachs talked eloquently about inequality, and even apologized to the world on behalf of Harvard. But what he should really apologize for is that Harvard, a top university, has not sent experts to solve problems for the world, but has become part of the problem. And Jiang Yurong seems to be a clear example.
"Elite Disease" Under the Halo of Prestigious Schools?
Nowadays, to enter a prestigious school like Harvard, there are only two possibilities: either the family is well-off and has the ability to cultivate, or has a deep connection with Harvard; or is naturally intelligent and has outstanding talents in some aspects. At least one of these two must be occupied.
Some people say that those students from Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge, especially young Chinese students, give people a very fake and pretentious feeling. This is not an illusion.
From a psychological point of view, when these students enter elite schools, society, especially domestic society, will hold them in a very high position. But in reality, they may be very arrogant and look down on people who did not graduate from prestigious schools from the bottom of their hearts. They are very smart and know that this mentality is wrong and needs to deliberately suppress their inner elite psychology, and suppress their contempt for ordinary people. This inner contradiction, manifested externally, appears very false and pretentious.
Jiang Yurong may be in the stage where this "elite disease" has just begun to occur, and the symptoms are very violent. Her speech at the graduation ceremony made the whole world see this pretentiousness, disgusting many people, regardless of political stance.
Some people say she is a spy, some people say she promotes the "community of human destiny." Some people also dug up her background: her father was once the head of the NGO secretly managed by the CCP, Lvfa Association, which also wrote a letter of recommendation for Jiang Yurong. Jiang Yurong studied in the UK in high school, went to Warwick University, and later transferred to Duke University in the United States. After graduation, she worked as an economic analyst at Ruixing for three years, and then engaged in private equity for one year. A proper elite, the young lady of a middle-class or above family.
It is really unacceptable for such a "miss" to cry and say that she wants to empathize with women who cannot afford sanitary napkins. Her speech was too exaggerated, making people feel that she was like Mother Teresa, giving a Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. But in reality, she is just a Harvard master's graduate, and before that, she was not a doctor without borders in a poor area, but at Credit Suisse!
No wonder some people commented: "Excellent agents cultivated by Kennedy Public Housing College, red seedlings of the Green Hair Association, client groups of Xiehe 4+4, bitter and deep for sanitary napkin sexual harassment, anger burning, generous speeches, is this how Harvard cultivates global Dalit foremen?"
"A Life of Uprightness"? A Response That Adds Fuel to the Fire
Faced with overwhelming doubts, Jiang Yurong specifically wrote an article in response, titled "I, Jiang Yurong, am upright throughout my life, I will go even if there are thousands of people." Not to mention that this title is too high-profile, the article is also mixed with many English words.
She quoted an English poem: "If I don't speak for myself, then who will speak for me?" But perhaps she should consult a public relations company.
This response is more like adding fuel to the fire than a defense. In the article, she revealed that her family was broken, her father did not care about her, and she was bullied since she was a child. This may win some sympathy, but then she said that she took the GCSE and went to study in the UK. Doesn't this prove that she is not from an ordinary family? Ordinary people take the college entrance examination!
She always emphasizes that her family was broken and she was bullied, but if the current Holy One writes a memoir, he can also write it like this. Xi Jinping's father was overthrown and placed under house arrest very early, and his family could be considered broken at that time. Xi Jinping is also rumored to have been bullied.
A broken family and being bullied does not mean that there is no money or power at home. Her explanation is pale, and she knows it herself. So she said that her family could afford her tuition fees to study abroad, and she was very lucky compared to many people. But the problem is that she emphasizes throughout the whole article how much she has suffered, but glosses over her luck.
In particular, she said that her tuition fees at Harvard were all the savings she "squeezed out" after her undergraduate degree at Credit Suisse and Probertas Investment. What about those who are screwing screws in Chinese factories, working as cows and horses in black-hearted companies, and delivering takeaways in the streets?
She has a particularly good and representative sentence in her explanation: "Some people say things that seem unreasonable, perhaps because they are also suffering. Some people say things that may be cynical, perhaps because they are angry and disappointed with the world. What I said in the speech, what I learned most at Harvard is to try to understand, to empathize with someone completely outside your world."
But the problem lies in the fact that these elites who have obtained tickets to the elite club are completely unable to understand and empathize with people outside their own world. They recognize that they should understand, but they can't. If Jiang Yurong really understood, she would not have written such an ungrounded explanation.
She emphasizes that her family is broken, she is stupid, meaning that she was admitted to Harvard entirely because of her own efforts. But please, why are there not so many Harvard graduates in Hengshui High School? Are those people in Hengshui High School not working hard? They only have five minutes to eat! Are these people in Jiang Yurong's world? Does she know these people exist? Does she know that in China, even Hengshui High School is still a noble school in the eyes of many people? Only the rich can afford to go.
If she knew these things, would she still say something like "In difficult times, staying soft and not letting your heart become hard is my greatest heroism?"
Jiang Yurong emphasized in her own response article: "I am not some great heroine from the sky." Although she emphasized "I am not," this seems to expose her own heart. What she has been demanding is that others understand her, but she does not try to understand others at all. It's not that she doesn't want to, but she doesn't have the ability to understand how people in the non-elite world think. She has lost this ability, and finally degenerated into pretending to understand, hypocritical to the point of being appalling.
A Wake-Up Call for Elite Education: When "Elites" No Longer Understand "the People"
Jiang Yurong's matter is not just her own matter. This matter shows that a considerable part (note not all) of the elites cultivated by elite schools like Harvard no longer feel the pain of others. It's not that they don't want to, but the class divide is too deep, they can't.
This is a very serious problem. These so-called future protagonists have tickets to the road to high positions and power, but they cannot change the biggest problem in the world today. These elites who are full of love and understanding, because they have lost the ability to understand ordinary human nature, will become part of the problem when dealing with social problems, and even make the problem worse.
| Comparison Dimension | Jeffrey Sachs | Jiang Yurong |
|---|---|---|
| Identity Background | Harvard "prodigy," economics professor, super "pro-China" person | Harvard Kennedy School master's student, father was the head of an NGO, a proper elite, middle-class or above family |
| Main Behavior | Apologized on behalf of Harvard at international forums, accusing the West of racial discrimination against Africa | Delivered a graduation speech, and then wrote an article in response to questions |
| Focus of Controversy | Poverty alleviation projects disconnected from reality, accusations against Western countries | The exaggeration of the speech, the paleness of the response, the "pretend understanding" of the people at the bottom |
| Core Problem | The disconnection of elite education, the misjudgment of real problems | Class solidification, the loss of empathy among elites |
Let's go back to Jiang Yurong's senior, Sachs. He is somewhat similar to Jiang Yurong. Back then, Sachs shouted to go to Africa for poverty alleviation, and as a result, he took 2.3 billion US dollars of poverty alleviation funds from Western countries and spent a lot of money to build poverty alleviation villages in Africa. Ten years later, he returned without success, but instead made the lives of the local people worse than before. This matter is a laughing stock in the economics circle. And Sachs still filled in support, accusing it was not that he was not good, but because Western countries racially discriminated against Africa and should give him another 2.3 billion US dollars to squander. This is the son of Harvard.
Ladies and gentlemen, elite universities in the world have become like this in our time. This is a dangerous signal. It shows that our era is getting closer and closer to war and revolution. This is something that everyone should be vigilant about.