On April 7, 2025, the official WeChat account of Wuhan University published an article titled “Game Boy’s Counterattack to Top Journals, Wuhan Boy Wins Lei Jun Award!” The original intention was to promote the scientific research achievements of Li Zhan, a doctoral student at the university, but it caused a huge uproar due to the description of his “liberal arts girlfriend” in the article.
This “inspirational article” not only failed to achieve the expected publicity effect, but instead became the fuse of a public opinion storm, and was criticized by netizens as “double humiliation of gender discrimination and academic hegemony”.
The article’s failure, from “academic inspiration” to “gender controversy”, the core points of controversy in the article are concentrated in the following three sentences:
“She takes care of all three meals and housework” instrumentalizes the girlfriend as a “life manager”
The article mentions that Li Zhan’s liberal arts girlfriend “accommodates his unusual work and rest schedule, takes care of all three meals and housework, so that he has no worries.”
This statement was interpreted by netizens as “defaulting that women should make way for men’s scientific research”, romanticizing women’s contributions, but concealing the gender inequality behind it.
“Influencing girlfriend with science and engineering thinking” implies academic hegemony
The article says that Li Zhan “influences his girlfriend with science and engineering thinking, encouraging her to explore interdisciplinary subjects.”
This statement was criticized as a stereotype that “liberal arts students need to be saved by science and engineering students”, ignoring the independent academic value of liberal arts students.
“Playing games online is romantic” beautifies unequal division of labor
The article describes the two playing games online as “romance exclusive to them”, but does not mention the girlfriend’s achievements in academics or career.
Netizens joked: “A virtuous wife helps me achieve my ambition, and I also have a battle with my virtuous wife.”
Even more absurdly, the official WeChat account of Wuhan University publicly disclosed the girl’s name and photos, but did not mention her academic background or career plan, leading netizens to denounce: “She is not a student of Wuhan University, but only an ‘accessory’ of a Wuhan University doctoral student.”
An official article from a 985 university actually portrays a “liberal arts girlfriend” as a “housework trophy”, taking care of all three meals, accommodating work and rest, and accepting “the influence of science and engineering thinking”.
Even more absurdly, the official WeChat account publicly disclosed the girl’s name and photos, but did not mention her academic achievements. In this regard, netizens sharply commented: “She is not a student of Wuhan University, but only an ‘accessory’ of a Wuhan University doctoral student”.
In this regard, netizens angrily criticized: Balance technique = let girlfriend be a nanny? Is the official WeChat account of Wuhan University crazy? ▽
Netizens pointed out sharply: “Why not cancel the liberal arts majors and change them to housekeeping majors” ▽
Parents broke down: “I am a girl’s parent and I am about to be fainted when I see it. I sent her to 985 and the result is to take care of the object’s three meals a day. I don’t even say anything about sleeping this time” ▽
It has to be said that young people’s minds are new and more useful. Through the official WeChat account of universities, high school students learn about the ideal universities and directly imitate the recruitment of science and engineering boyfriends ▽
After the public opinion broke out, the official WeChat account of Wuhan University quickly closed the comment section, and related topics on various platforms were restricted, but the screenshots had already spread all over the internet.
Netizens’ criticisms are mainly focused on the following points:
985 universities personally “stamped and certified” gender discrimination
Academic circles’ “good wife and helpful mother” literature, who is mass-producing gender templates?
The sentence “the liberal arts girlfriend takes care of housework and allows her boyfriend to have no worries” in the Wuhan University article accurately hit the two major minefields of contemporary young people:
The violent inheritance of gender division of labor. Research by the University of Cambridge shows that female scholars spend an average of 12 hours more per week on unpaid housework than men, which is equivalent to writing 1.5 fewer papers per year.
And the official WeChat account of Wuhan University beautifies this inequality as “best partner”, which is actually giving official certification to gender exploitation in the academic world.
The “instrumentalization” humiliation of liberal arts. The girlfriend’s liberal arts background is only described as “tolerance” and “housework ability”, while her academic value is hidden.
This narrative is in sync with the wave of Harvard and Columbia University cutting liberal arts majors. When humanistic care is simplified to “emotional value”, liberal arts students become “second-class citizens” in the knowledge system.
When a university measures disciplines with “usefulness and uselessness”, what it cultivates is nothing more than a skilled worker; when it defines women’s value with “housework ability”, the so-called top university is nothing more than a repeater of feudal thought.
Why does university publicity always insult intelligence?
The “instrumentalization” humiliation of liberal arts.
The girlfriend’s liberal arts background is only described as “tolerance” and “housework ability”, and her academic value is completely ignored.
Netizens satirized: “Why not cancel the liberal arts majors and change them to housekeeping majors?”
“24-hour scientific research” VS “100-hour game”.
The article both claims that Li Zhan “roots in the laboratory 24 hours a day” and boasts that his “game accumulated more than 100 hours”, this self-contradictory “time management master” persona has turned the academic struggle history into a absurd drama.
The academic fairness question of “sincerely moving the professor”.
When rendering personal legends with “failing the exam and counterattacking”, the specific standards for exceptional admission were not explained.
Netizens sharply commented: “It turns out that the scientific research threshold of 985 is ‘being able to move people’, not academic ability?”
The academic ethics trap of a 0.1% similarity rate.
The similarity rate of the 140,000-word thesis is as low as 0.1%, but the citation norms are not mentioned. Academics questioned: Is this academic rigor or deliberately avoiding the achievements of predecessors?
In 2023, the average Chinese adult reads 4.76 books per year, but spends 98 minutes per day watching short videos. When universities themselves are also addicted to “cool text narratives”, who can save deep thinking?
Generation Z deconstructs authority with “memes”.
Faced with this rollover, Generation Z uses magic to defeat magic, and young people are deconstructing authority with “memes”.
Gender reversal meme, “Recruit a liberal arts boyfriend to take care of housework, and give you the enlightenment of science and engineering thinking”.
Declaration of disciplinary equality: “My literature review can dissect society, and your code can’t write the compassion of ‘A Dream of Red Mansions'” .
Young people have already removed the charm of university publicity: “Please stop writing scholars as a CP combination of ‘scientific research machine + housekeeper'” .
Deeply dissecting the “five-fold toxic logic” of university publicity
Gender poison, in 2025, will still nail women to the “good wife and helpful mother” cross, strengthening the feudal remnants of “men outside and women inside” .
Perfectly “resonates” with the data of “Chinese female scholars’ housework time is 2.3 times that of men” statistics from Nature .
Discipline poison, liberal arts are stigmatized as a “time black hole”, ignoring the value of humanities and ignoring the 2000 hours of intensive reading of “Records of the Grand Historian” – “Science and engineering students’ top journals are glory, liberal arts students reading classics are a waste of time?” .
Power poison, the boyfriend failed the exam and exceptionally entered the laboratory, the girlfriend stayed up late to prepare meals and was called the “best partner”, which is taken for granted, “academic privilege meets gender privilege, the winner takes all” .
Narrative poison, plagiarism of the “Dragon Aotian online novel” routine: waste wood counterattack + red face sacrifice = successology, turning the ivory tower into a “male frequency novel scene”, simplifying academic success into “counterattack + sacrifice” .
Ethical poison, exposing the privacy of ordinary people without consent, burying the hidden danger of workplace discrimination – “Will future employers ask: Can you be a nanny for your ex, and can you work overtime for me?” .
Why does university publicity often “step on the minefield”?
The spread of traffic-driven alienation. The official WeChat account of Wuhan University has long pursued “explosive models”, leading to superficial and labeled content. The success of the cherry blossom IP has instead become a shackle, forcing the team to excessively pursue controversial content in the non-cherry blossom season .
The dispersed responsibility of the review mechanism. The article goes through multiple levels of review by “copywriters – editors – instructors”, but the problematic statements are slipped through the gatekeepers due to “dispersed responsibility” .
The professional limitations of the editor group. Student editors lack education in news ethics and gender awareness, blindly imitating the controversial narratives of the internet .
What is the real “counterattack”?
The biggest “academic contribution” of this article is to let us see clearly:
The real counterattack is not from “game boy” to “top journal author”, but to allow the talents of every “her” to not have to prove it through “for him”.
When the century-old accumulation of the School of Liberal Arts of Wuhan University is dissolved by a sentence “liberal arts girlfriend”, are we burying the tradition of Wen Yiduo piercing the darkness with his pen?
University publicity should not become a mouthpiece for “gender discrimination”, but should become a bridge to promote equality and progress. Next time, when the “cool text” comes, it is better to ask one more question:
In this story, whose name was quietly hidden?
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