Uncover Sun Ge’s novel-like life experience and let you see the real king of gangsters.
Reposted from Weibo - Xicheng Aunt
Very long article, estimated reading time: 20 minutes
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Sun Ge's full name is Sun Yuchen. His ancestral home is Qingdao, Shandong Province. He was born in Xining in 1990. When he was four years old, his father found an opportunity to work in the Planning Bureau of Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, and his mother became a reporter for Huizhou Daily. Since then, the whole family has settled in Huizhou. When Sun Ge was in elementary school, his parents divorced and his mother married in Italy. From then on, the father and son depended on each other, and their life was relatively hard and tight. But Sun Ge's father obviously loved his son very much. Under such circumstances, he still insisted on enrolling his son in his favorite Go class and supported his son's literary hobby.
Sun Ge's academic performance in junior high school was not outstanding, but he had a talent that no one could match. I call it the rocket-like climbing technique of cramming, that is, through temporary crazy study, he can greatly improve his academic performance in a short period of time. In the end, he worked hard for half a year and was admitted to the local key high school, Huizhou No. 1 Middle School. However, even in such a tight study situation, Sun Ge still did not give up his literary dream. Although his father did not understand, he accompanied him to participate in the New Concept Composition Competition in the third year of junior high school, but he was eliminated.
But Sun Ge's rough and fast learning spirit could not last long. After entering Huizhou No. 1 Middle School, he soon ranked last. Frustrated in his studies, Sun Ge went against the test-oriented education in the examination room. For example, he insisted on writing in Chinese on the English test paper, so his grades were naturally terrible. Sun Ge put all his enthusiasm into literary creation and became a regular in the New Concept Composition Competition. He participated every year and was eliminated every year. By the time he was in the third year of high school, his total score was only more than 400 points, and he was almost out of the three books. His literary dream had no place to go, which made his father, who had supported him for many years, a little anxious. After all, for an ordinary family, you still have to go to college and find a job to live a normal life.
However, at this time, Sun Ge seemed to be suddenly inspired. Although he could only score 400 points, he decided to try for Peking University!
This was not a dream. Sun Ge started to study hard and improved his score to nearly 600 in just half a year. But he felt that his score was still several dozen points away from Peking University. What should he do? At this time, his "bug" skill point was awakened. He looked up various admission policies of Peking University and found a bug that he could use:
The first prize winner of the New Concept Writing Competition can be shortlisted for Peking University's independent enrollment, which means that the admission score can be reduced by 10-30 points.
But how could someone who was eliminated three times in a row (in the third year of junior high school, the first year of high school, and the second year of high school) win the first prize? But Sun Ge didn't care about that. He was going to participate! How could you stop me from participating? But at that time, he didn't have much time to engage in literature, so he decided to try his luck and turn a bicycle into a motorcycle. So he sent all his eliminated articles to the organizer of the New Concept Essay Competition, Mengya, without changing a single word.
To put it simply, it's like trying to figure out which cloud will bring rain.
It was probably this experience that made Sun Ge realize that the world was a makeshift team before he was 18. These three eliminated articles, without changing a single word, actually sent Sun Ge to the semi-finals!
Sun Ge, who entered the semi-finals, did not dare to neglect this time. He studied the first-prize articles of the New Concept Writing Competition over the years and summarized them through human-shaped big data. He came to the conclusion:
This thing looks like a "new language" that encourages innovation, but in fact it is just another set of stereotyped essays. The point is to be angry, dissatisfied, and rebellious, to point fingers at China's education and system, and to complain about a bunch of people who feel that their talents are not appreciated, and then you can win the award.
With Sun's Kimi's summary, he wrote like a tiger and finally won the first prize in the New Concept Essay Competition. With this result, he was shortlisted for the qualifying round of Peking University's independent enrollment.
The independent enrollment in those days was very magical. I will post the 2006 independent enrollment brochure of Peking University for everyone:
Applicants who are high school graduates with excellent comprehensive scores from famous key high schools in provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government) in accordance with national policy regulations, are in good health, have high comprehensive qualities, and are well-rounded, and who also meet one of the following conditions:
① Those with outstanding talents in literature, art, sports, management, etc.;
② Those who have extraordinary innovation and practical ability and have outstanding achievements in scientific and technological innovation;
③ Those who have outstanding ideological and moral qualities;
④ Those who have other excellent qualities and outstanding talents.
Students applying for recommended admission must also meet the recommended admission qualifications stipulated in relevant documents of the Ministry of Education.
All in all, there is no rigid standard. Peking University is a big stage, so come if you have the guts!
At the subsequent college meeting, Cheng Yuzhu, professor of the Chinese Department of Peking University, and Liu Mingli, director of the admissions office, were impressed by his idealism and granted him the qualification to participate in Peking University's independent enrollment. In the end, Sun Ge passed the Peking University independent enrollment exam and was admitted with a 20-point reduction. However, Sun Ge's score at that time was only about 600, which means that he needed to improve by about 50 points in the remaining months to use the 20-point reduction.
This mission, which seemed like a fantasy, might be difficult for others, but it was no problem for Sun Ge, who was a professional crammer. In the end, he scored 115 points in Chinese, 132 points in mathematics, 130 points in English, 146 points in comprehensive, 127 points in history, and a total score of 650 points. At that time, the admission score of Peking University in Guangdong Province was 653. Sun Ge, with the 20 points reduction from independent enrollment, successfully completed the gorgeous transformation from a third-tier undergraduate student to the Chinese Department of Peking University.
Many people have questioned whether Sun Ge returned to his birthplace, Qinghai, to take the college entrance examination. This auntie did not find any concrete evidence and can only speculate based on some current circumstances. According to the policy of Peking University at that time, candidates for independent enrollment must come from provincial key schools, and admission with reduced scores is specific to the province. Huizhou No. 1 High School meets the requirements, but given the difficult situation of Sun Ge's family at that time, it is likely that they did not have the resources to get into a key high school in Qinghai. In addition, after Sun Ge made a gorgeous turn to enter Peking University, he frequently returned to Huizhou No. 1 High School to give speeches and impart his own experiences. In summary, I think Sun Ge most likely took the college entrance examination in Guangdong rather than his birthplace, Qinghai, but I have no evidence for this.
After entering Peking University, Sun Ge, who was full of high spirits, published an article on Mengya called "An Argumentation Question", which basically boasted about his great achievements in the past year. At the end, he wrote:
I believe that my talent has never been washed away by the test-oriented education, but I have truly successfully challenged the test-oriented education. Finally, I only have two hopes: one is that people with ideals will not bow to reality; the other is that I hope everyone can help me solve this problem, and I hope it will be true for each of you.
This article attracted nearly 10,000 replies to Sun Ge. Perhaps it was at this time that Sun Ge realized the power of traffic.
But bragging can't solve real problems. After entering the Chinese Department of Peking University, Sun Ge found that he was not good enough in the Chinese Department. After all, they were all real academic masters. If he continued like this, he might not even graduate. Sun Ge always adhered to the principle of "either don't do it, or be the best", but the last one was not included. But how could he be the best in a place like Peking University where there were so many masters?
After observing for a while, Sun Ge found something interesting: in the social environment at that time, the top students who entered Peking University mostly studied finance, management and other subjects that made money quickly, and there were also many talented people in the Chinese department. But there was a subject that was too far from money, so the top students avoided it as much as possible. To put it bluntly, this major concentrated the liberal arts students who were at the bottom of the learning ability of Peking University. If I went there, wouldn't I have the opportunity to pick the tallest among the short ones?
He did what he said. In the second semester of his freshman year, he applied to transfer from the Chinese Department to the History Department. However, after entering the History Department, he found that although there was no top student here, and it was not as good as the Yuanpei Experimental Class where everyone was a genius, they were not vegetarians either. He, who was just a marginal student, still could not be the top student. What should he do?
If you can’t handle your classmates, then handle your professors. Later, in an interview with GQ, Sun Ge revealed his trick:
The history department's courses have a small score in exams, and the majority of the score is the essay. I communicated more with the teacher and became familiar with him. Before I officially submitted the paper, I asked him to take a look and give me some suggestions, and then I would revise it. How could the score be bad? "Every time he chose a course, he must get the teacher's mobile phone number and email address, "If something goes wrong, at least I can find the person responsible." He raised the corners of his mouth and held up four fingers: "I remember that at least four courses were originally below 85 points, but after asking the teacher, they were changed to above 85 points.
Simply put, chat.
It may be that at that time, history teachers were generally unpopular, and many history teachers really liked this student who was willing to chat with them. He also used this method to successfully reverse from a mediocre student to the top of Peking University's history department, and also got the opportunity to exchange at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and represent Peking University in the United Nations Model Conference in the Netherlands. In short, Sun Ge got the best resources of Peking University at that time and was the most handsome boy in Peking University.
However, Sun Ge's ideals went far beyond this. He felt that Peking University students were no longer worthy of being his opponents, and this time he wanted to challenge the Peking University president. In 2011, Peking University President Zhou Qifeng proposed the "academic consultation system", which was originally intended to help some students who had abandoned their studies due to learning difficulties, radical thoughts, economic poverty, etc. to get back on track, but Sun Ge felt that this was a good opportunity to attack. So he seized the four words "radical thoughts" in the characteristics of the people being helped, and posted articles on the Peking University BBS one after another, saying that the "academic consultation system" was evil, aimed at institutionalizing comprehensive control of students, and was "contemporary Nazis."
Students always like to criticize the school. In the end, this article became a hot topic at Peking University, which made Zhou Qifeng in a dilemma. In the end, the consultation system was aborted. However, Sun Ge became famous in this incident and became a youth leader. In 2011, he and Jiang Fangzhuo, who was studying at the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University at that time, appeared on the cover of "Asia Weekly" and officially embarked on the road to fame.
At this time, he had already been admitted to the East Asian Studies program at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school in the United States, as the first in the History Department of Peking University, and became a close classmate of Trump.
Those who have studied in the United States know that East Asian studies, at least in those days, was an unpopular field that no one cared about. Although the University of Pennsylvania is good, it is famous for its Wharton School, which is the private domain of the Wang family. Not many people apply for East Asian studies, which does not make money. After all, the tuition is high, and everyone's money is not blown by the wind. Sun Ge took advantage of this information gap and went in first. Two years later, when he mentioned this study abroad experience, he began to claim that he was a Wharton graduate.
The above dazzling and amazing operations are just a relatively unimportant part of Sun Ge’s life....
Now you all understand why I said that even if the aunt started practicing from 1890 to now, she still can’t get this level of Taoism....
Continuing from the last time, let’s continue talking about Sun Ge~~
During his university years, Sun Ge had the opportunity to study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. This experience is often overlooked, and at most is mentioned briefly as evidence of his excellence. But if you look closely at his interview with Asia Weekly, Sun Ge once said that a course he took during this period completely changed his personality. The name of this course is too indescribable, so it cannot be written. If I write it, it will be gone, because the teacher of this course is named Chen Jianmin.
Not familiar with him? It doesn't matter. You just need to know that this guy is known as the "Occupy Central Three" and is the leader of the Hong Kong riots. In 2019, Chen Jianmin was sentenced to prison by the court for "incitement".
As a chat enthusiast, Sun Yuchen is so obsessed with this course, and his relationship with Chen Jianmin can be imagined. Moreover, Sun Ge not only learns, but also puts it into practice. After returning to the mainland, he directly puts into practice what the teacher taught in and out of class. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether Chen Jianmin’s guidance was behind the attempt to impact the "consultation system" proposed by the principal, and the huge traffic that followed, especially the favor of foreign media. However, at this time, Sun Ge has already embarked on the road of public knowledge, posting articles every day, either China has problems or Chinese people have bad roots. In short, Sun Ge is already a rising star in the public knowledge circle.
By the time he was a junior, Sun Yuchen and the school were already in a bad place. He did have one advantage, which was that he had a clear understanding of himself and a thorough assessment of risks. He felt that if he continued like this, something would happen to him sooner or later, and it would be a tragedy if he was expelled. So he combined his junior and senior year classes together in advance, prepared for TOEFL and GRE at the same time, and even did an internship and a graduation thesis... Anyway, his goal was only one:
I’m going to America after graduating one year early!
PS: Does changing majors in Peking University require a year of waiting? Because he entered the university in 2007, transferred to the history department in 2008, and graduated in 2011. If he graduated early, it means that he was a freshman again in 2008. Of course, this may also be a fabricated "early graduation" in order to exaggerate his learning ability. I don't know about this, and I call on Peking University history students to explain.
In any case, in 2011, he entered the University of Pennsylvania to study East Asian studies.
After all, Sun Ge was still young in the United States and had not completely given up his literary and political ideals, so he compared himself to the American Chen Duxiu and founded a column on Renren.com called "New New Youth". Sun Ge wrote his first article under the pen name "Hu Keping". It was an article commemorating the veterans of the Kuomintang. It was rich in information and delicate in writing. It was very touching and attracted a large number of readers.
However, not long after, Princeton’s Shen Danqi issued an article pointing out that this article was plagiarized from his article published in the Yale Chinese Magazine, and attached evidence. The irrefutable evidence was overwhelming, and the editorial board of "New New Youth" had to apologize and delete the article. However, Sun Gee said, "What does the editorial board of "New New Youth" have to do with me, Sun Gee? Not only did he deny plagiarism in strong words, he also wrote A "My Final Response" defense.
This is probably what Beijingers say: having a thicker skin than the corner of a city wall and being able to lie without changing face or heartbeat, how is this not a talent?
Although he refused to admit it, Sun Ge suddenly lost interest in literature and political commentary. He stopped publishing articles and no longer participated in the affairs of New Youth.
When Sun Ge was young, although he was good at making money, he was also like young people, a little bit arrogant, especially looking down on the word "making money". Once, Peking University invited Yu Minhong as an alumni representative to give a speech to students at the graduation ceremony, which was criticized by Sun Yuchen. He angrily denounced the smell of money for tainting the purity of the ivory tower. Another time, an "academic big shot" he once admired started doing business, and he denounced the other party's cynicism. Even when Jack Ma opened a Weibo account and attracted thousands of people to watch, Sun Yuchen didn't even know who Jack Ma was. It can be seen that Sun Ge didn't value making money at that time, but only valued reputation, which was somewhat true.
When he first arrived in the United States, idealist Sun Ge went to visit his idol Yu Yingshi. However, when he found out that this famous scholar only made $80,000 to $90,000 a year, less than half of his senior at Goldman Sachs, his ideals were shaken. When he found out that this nationally renowned scholar not only had little money, but also had little influence, in his words, "completely marginalized, no one cared about him", Sun Ge woke up. He felt that studying literature could not save the Chinese people, and he had to make money!
At that time, Sun Ge's direct experience of making money was: Wall Street makes money! Finance makes money! I want to make money, so I want to do finance! So he took advantage of the fact that Penn had a relatively loose selection of courses, and in the second semester of graduate school - later, somehow, he went to the Wharton School of Business, and according to his own account, his mentor was Marshall Meyer, the most famous professor at the Wharton School who studied Chinese companies. This mentor also had an even more famous student named Liu Chuanzhi. From then on, Sun Ge was Liu Chuanzhi's junior fellow student!
An education background alone was not enough. Sun Ge looked for internships while joining an investment association to expand his network. He also made a program called "Three People Studying in the United States". He was so busy that he was busy. But in the end, he failed. He didn't find an internship. The "network" he met was just acquaintances who could not provide any help. Although "Three People Studying in the United States" had a good number of hits, it didn't make much money.
Sun Ge was planning to change his career again. While living in the United States, he found that being a lawyer was a lucrative profession. But to be a lawyer, one must take the JD exam. What if he failed the exam? So he postponed his master's program for a year and worked hard to prepare for the JD exam.
During the exam preparation period, Sun Ge, who was depressed, made some investments and bought some Tesla stocks and Bitcoin. At that time, Tesla was very cheap and Bitcoin was not popular, and no one took it seriously. However, Sun Ge showed an unparalleled vision and adventurous spirit, and bet all his remaining tuition fees. After a period of near collapse, the stock price of Tesla and the price of Bitcoin soared, and Sun Ge also transformed himself into a young rich man.
Studying law, working in the financial district or in a law firm are all means to make money, and making money is the goal. Now that Sun Ge has money, why would he study law? Or take a P class? So after graduation, he gave up his plan to study JD and started his real journey of making a living.
That’s right, for Sun Ge, these jaw-dropping operations are just experiences that can be brushed aside. His real big job has not even started yet…