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Yating Yang

A young associate professor at a prestigious Chinese university has gone viral on social media after a video of her teaching generative artificial intelligence (AI) captivated viewers.
She has also sparked an online discussion about her youthful appearance and academic credentials.
He Jing, who is in her mid-30s, is a teacher at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences at Beihang University.
Beihang University (BUAA) was established in 1952 and is one of China’s top institutions, specialising in aeronautics and astronautics.

According to the QS World University Rankings 2026, it ranks 388 globally and 81 in East Asia.
Recently, a video posted online by He went viral, in which she explains the basics of generative artificial intelligence to beginners.
The video, shared on her personal social media account with almost 120,000 followers, garnered more than 125,000 likes.
In the video, He appears strikingly young, which quickly shifted public attention from her professional background to her appearance, with some questioning the authenticity of her title.
One comment read: “She is already an associate professor at such a young age?”

“Are professors working this hard now? With that appearance, I would mistake her for a first-year college student,” said another.
On October 1, a member of staff from the institute confirmed that He Jing is a faculty member and that her profile and academic achievements are available on the institute’s official website.
According to the website, she also serves as Deputy Director at the Science and Technology Governance Centre of the Institute.
She has published over 40 academic papers in high quality, well regarded journals. On more than 10 occasions she is listed as the first or co-author.
He completed her postdoctoral research in October 2021 at the School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University.
Her research focuses on AI and big data, new media, public opinion and interdisciplinary studies.
She currently has a citation count of 2,300 on Google Scholar.
In a humble response to her sudden online fame, He said: “I look pretty average and I am not photogenic. Most of the videos are AI-edited. My academic background is also ordinary.”

Her situation attracted both discussion and praise on Chinese social media.
One person said: “She could easily rely on her looks, but her academic credentials are also impressive.”
While another added: “To be honest, this class taught by the beautiful professor really helped me understand AI better. Definitely saving it.”
“Some people are being ridiculous. Is it just jealousy towards women? The moment a woman achieves something, they say it is undeserved,” said a third person.


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China AI professor goes viral over good looks, humble academic says she is ‘ordinary’

A young associate professor at a university in China has attracted attention for her lecture on generative AI and her striking appearance. Photo: SCMP composite/Douyin/gyy.buaa.edu.cn

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He has an impressive list of academic achievements to her name and has published more than 40 academic papers. Photo: ifeng

The academic also studied at Tsinghua University. One of her specialities is generative artificial intelligence. Photo: Shutterstock

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‘Beautiful’ 30-something teacher at top university sparks disbelief online as netizens question her academic credentials


‘Beautiful’ 30-something teacher at top university sparks disbelief online as netizens question her academic credentials.


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China AI professor goes viral over good looks, humble academic says she is ‘ordinary’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}‘Beautiful’ 30-something teacher at top university sparks disbelief online as netizens question her academic credentials

‘Beautiful’ 30-something teacher at top university sparks disbelief online as netizens question her academic credentials