He caught eels for school tuition as a poor youth and today his PhD acknowledgement is inspiring China
- Huang Guoping now works at Tencent AI Lab, inspiring others about the possibilities of working hard
- Huang was left orphaned after his grandmother and father died in quick succession
Huang revealed the story as part of his doctoral candidate dissertation. A teacher recently posted the story online to help motivate students.
Huang’s words went viral and a hashtag about the topic of the dissertation attracted more than 770 million views and more than 156,000 comments on social media site Weibo by Thursday.
He began the acknowledgement: “I have come a long way and endured a great deal of hardship to present this dissertation before you. The road of 22 years of study has been a muddy road on a rainy day and full of difficulties.”
Born into an impoverished family in the mountainous area in Nanchong, in China’s southwestern Sichuan province, he was 12 when his mother left home and never returned.
With his father barely around, the young boy lived with his grandmother, who died when he was 17. Huang was left orphaned when his father was killed in a traffic accident soon after.