China’s viral ‘rocket boy’ who told off planetarium for mistakes in educational film is now ‘teaching’ astronomy at his school

The boy became an internet darling in July when a video of him angrily pointing out that a rocket in a film at a planetarium was wrongly named went viral

He has already made his own rocket models and taught online classes on short video app Douyin where he has more than 214,000 followers

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China’s ‘rocket boy’, who went viral for calling out a planetarium for wrongly labelling rockets in a visitor film, now gives ‘lectures’ to other students at his school. Photo: SCMP composite

Published: 6:00pm, 13 Sep 2022

A nine-year-old boy who shot to national fame in China after pointing out factual errors in a planetarium documentary in July is now giving astronomy lessons to his schoolmates, state television has reported.

Dubbed “rocket boy”, Yan Hongsen, a Primary Three student from Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, eastern China, was invited to teach his whole school about space science at the opening ceremony of the new school term, CCTV reported on the weekend.

“In the new school year I want to teach more astronomy classes to my classmates and I also want to learn something new myself,” Yan said during the CCTV interview.

Yan’s Chinese teacher at school says thanks to him his classmates are more willing to share their hobbies and after-school interests. Photo: Weixin.qq

An avid astronomy enthusiast since he was four years old, Yan became an internet darling in July when his father shared a video of him angrily pointing out that a Long March 3 rocket was wrongly referred to as a Long March 5 rocket in an educational film shown to visitors at a planetarium in Lhasa, Tibet.

“I’m more determined about my dream – I want to build my own rocket,” he said after the video went viral.

Having been to 22 planetariums and science museums across China, Yan has already made his own rocket models and taught online classes for other enthusiasts, which his father shares on video app Douyin where he has more than 214,000 followers.

Lao Chunyan, Yan’s Chinese teacher, said thanks to Yan his classmates are more willing to share their hobbies and after-school interests.