The Sudden Death of a Man Who Told Chinese Kids How to Succeed
一位指导中国孩子如何成功的男子猝逝

The influencer Zhang Xuefeng was known for no-nonsense, some said cynical, advice about how to win in China’s educational rat race. He died at 41.
网红张雪峰以直白——有人甚至认为带着愤世嫉俗色彩——的升学竞争建议而闻名。他在 41 岁时猝然离世。

Any Chinese parent or student fixated on education — so, basically, most Chinese parents and students — knew the name Zhang Xuefeng. As China’s most famous education influencer, Mr. Zhang was known for dispensing ruthlessly blunt advice about how to maximize a student’s chances at success.
任何关注教育的中国家长或学生——基本上就是大多数中国家长和学生——都知道张雪峰这个名字。作为中国最著名的教育网红，张雪峰以提供毫不留情的直白建议而闻名，教人如何最大限度地提高学生成功的机会。

The liberal arts? Only good for service jobs, he declared. Finance? Don’t bother unless your family has connections. Fast-talking and sharp-tongued, to his detractors he was cynical and utilitarian. But to his tens of millions of fans, he embodied a rare willingness to acknowledge the harsh realities facing less privileged students, especially in the face of steep inequality and a slowing economy.
文科？他说，只适合做服务性工作。金融？除非家里有关系，否则别费心。他语速快、言辞犀利，在批评者眼中，他愤世嫉俗、功利主义。但对他数千万的粉丝来说，他体现了一种难得的意愿，愿意承认弱势学生面临的严峻现实，尤其是在不平等加剧和经济放缓的情况下。

So when Mr. Zhang suddenly died on Tuesday at age 41, of cardiac arrest, it prompted an outpouring — not only of shock, but also of reflection.
因此，当张雪峰周二因心脏骤停突然去世，享年 41 岁时，引发了人们的强烈反应——不仅是震惊，还有反思。

On social media, people asked: Had he steered young Chinese to better lives or discouraged their idealism? What did his abrupt death, after he had long complained of being exhausted and overworked, say about China’s hypercompetitive work culture? And if life was so unpredictable, did planning so carefully — for success that seemed increasingly out of reach — even matter?
在社交媒体上，人们问道：他是引导中国年轻人走向更好的生活，还是打击了他们的理想主义？他长期抱怨自己筋疲力尽、工作过度，他的突然离世说明了中国竞争激烈的工作文化什么？如果生活如此不可预测，那么如此精心地规划——为了似乎越来越遥不可及的成功——还有意义吗？

“Zhang Xuefeng’s lesson to lost young people: Enjoy your life,” was one of the top hashtags on Chinese social media on Wednesday, where news of Mr. Zhang’s death dominated discussion. “Excessive self-discipline” was another, a response to state media reports that Mr. Zhang had collapsed after going for a run in Suzhou, the city in eastern China where he lived.
“张雪峰给迷茫年轻人的一课：享受生活”，这是周三中国社交媒体上的热门话题之一，关于张雪峰先生去世的消息主导了当天的讨论。”过度自律”是另一个热门话题，这是对官方媒体报道的回应，报道称张雪峰先生在他居住的东部城市苏州跑步后突然倒地不起。

Another popular education influencer, Zhu Wei, posted a long tribute online, praising Mr. Zhang’s vigor and sincerity. Mr. Zhu urged his own students to slow down in their pursuit of test scores and jobs.
另一位知名教育博主朱伟在网上发表了一篇长文悼念，赞扬张先生的活力与真诚。朱先生还劝告自己的学生在追求考试成绩和工作时放慢脚步。

“But I also know, what’s the cruelest thing about the age of internet traffic? It’s that nothing lasts even a month before it’s forgotten,” Mr. Zhu wrote. “Everyone will soon go back to their usual state, endlessly striving and slogging, never able to stop.”
“但我也知道，流量时代最残酷的是什么？就是连一个月都不到，就没人记得了，”朱先生写道。“大家很快就会回到原来的状态，不停地奋斗、拼搏，永远停不下来。”

Mr. Zhang was born in a small town in northern China. His real name was Zhang Zibiao, though he later adopted the name Xuefeng. He tested into a middling university, where he studied water supply and drainage, for which he had little enthusiasm, according to interviews he gave. After graduation, he turned to tutoring and college counseling.
张先生出生在中国北方的一个小镇。他的本名是张子彪，但后来改名为雪峰。根据他接受的采访，他考入了一所普通大学，学习给排水工程，但他对此没什么热情。毕业后，他转向了辅导和大学咨询工作。

He shot to fame in 2016, for a video in which he — in what would become his signature rapid-fire, snark-infused patter — summarized China’s top 34 universities in seven minutes. He started a consulting company where he helped students choose majors, internships and careers based on cold-eyed considerations of their test scores, family backgrounds and whether they prioritized money or stability. His livestreams attracted hundreds of thousands of views, and his courses could cost thousands of dollars.
2016 年，他因一段视频迅速走红。视频中，他以标志性的快节奏、讽刺口吻，在七分钟内概括了中国顶尖的 34 所大学。他创立了一家咨询公司，根据学生的考试成绩、家庭背景以及他们更看重金钱还是稳定等因素，冷静地帮助他们选择专业、实习和职业。他的直播吸引了数十万观众，课程费用可能高达数千美元。

His celebrity came as much from his advice as his willingness to provoke. A comment in 2023 that parents should knock their children unconscious rather than let them study journalism, because of the weak job prospects, set off days of online debate. Critics said he misunderstood the point of education, or was suggesting that poorer students shouldn’t follow their dreams.
他的名气既来自他的建议，也来自他乐于挑衅的态度。2023 年，他评论说，由于新闻业就业前景黯淡，父母应该把孩子打晕，也不要让他们学新闻，这引发了数日的网络辩论。批评者称他误解了教育的意义，或是在暗示贫困学生不应追求梦想。

“I come from an ordinary family,” Mr. Zhang wrote in response. “If you come from a wealthy family, you have more choices, you can’t choose wrongly. But most families aren’t that well-off, and when choosing a major, you have to choose one that’s suitable and will put food on the table.”
“我来自普通家庭，”张雪峰在回复中写道，“如果你来自富裕家庭，你就有更多选择，不会选错。但大多数家庭并不那么富裕，在选择专业时，你必须选择一个适合自己、能养家糊口的。”

For the most part, Mr. Zhang’s outsize persona fueled his popularity, and his business. The Paper, a Shanghai-based outlet, of Mr. Zhang that the furor over his journalism remarks made his fans only more devoted: “The comment section is dominated by one voice: The poor need Zhang Xuefeng.”
在很大程度上，张雪峰夸张的个人形象助推了他的知名度和事业。总部位于上海的《澎湃新闻》在一篇人物特写中写道，关于他新闻学言论的争议反而让他的粉丝更加忠诚：”评论区里只有一个声音：穷人需要张雪峰。”

After another controversy, Mr. Zhang started selling a T-shirt that said “I was wrong, I apologize.”
又一场争议过后，张先生开始售卖一件印有“我错了，我道歉”字样的 T 恤衫。

But he had recently landed in bigger trouble. In September, his social media accounts were blocked from posting or adding new followers, during a campaign by China’s cyberspace administration to erase what it called “excessively pessimistic” sentiment.
但他最近陷入了更大的麻烦。去年 9 月，中国网信办开展专项行动，清除其所谓的”过度悲观”情绪，在此期间，他的社交媒体账号被禁止发帖或新增粉丝。

Mr. Zhang was among a list of influencers targeted, according to China’s state broadcaster, which said that he was being punished for using “vulgar language for an extended period” during a livestream.
据电视台报道，张先生是被整治的网红名单中的一员，他被指在直播中长期使用”低俗语言”而受到处罚。

But some observers speculated that his true offense was speaking bluntly about young people’s economic anxieties, at a time when the government has tried to hide high youth unemployment rates and accused young people of being too picky about jobs.
但一些观察人士推测，他真正的过错在于直言不讳地谈论年轻人的经济焦虑，而政府正试图掩盖青年高失业率，并指责年轻人对工作过于挑剔。

Mr. Zhang recovered his accounts a month later and returned to streaming multiple times a week. The morning he died, he did a broadcast then went for a run, as was his habit.
张先生一个月后恢复了账号，恢复了每周多次直播的习惯。去世当天上午，他照例完成直播后外出跑步。

His death was announced by his company in a post on social media. He is survived by his wife and a daughter, according to Chinese media.
其所在公司通过社交媒体发文公布了讣告。据媒体报道，他身后留下妻子和一个女儿。