Youth leaders share knowledge and break barriers

University students create a platform where top scorers share their study secrets and personal experiences to inspire and guide young learners across China.

Many people have turned to top students for help with their questions during school, much like in a "cyber classroom" called "House of Youth".

In this online space, around a dozen provincial-level top scorers from the gaokao (China's college entrance exam) serve as companions and "mentors", teaching and answering viewers' questions.

This public online classroom is an account on Douyin (Chinese version of Tik-Tok), founded by three post-2000 university students: Zhang Boyu and Liu Zimian from Tsinghua University, and Zhang Chujian from the Central University of Finance and Economics.

The "study secrets" shared by the top scorers include theoretical knowledge of various high school subjects, problem-solving strategies, study methods, preparation for the gaokao, personal experiences, advice on choosing a major, and some introductory university courses.

The first video of House of Youth was released in March 2024, featuring Jin Zehan, the top science scorer of the 2023 gaokao in Heilongjiang province, answering physics-related questions. Since then, House of Youth has gained over 1 million followers in just three months. To date, they have posted over 160 videos and accumulated more than 1.43 million subscribers.

Zhang Chujian, 21, from Changchun, Jilin province, acknowledges that social media platforms and the involvement of top scorers have helped them reach a wider audience more quickly. They aim to create a model of "youth leaders", where "one young person leads a large group of young people", he said.

"In past media reports, top scorers were often portrayed as unreachable figures, surrounded by parents holding bouquets of flowers. We want to bring these top scorers back down to earth, so they can truly walk alongside young people and share their real experiences and valuable insights," he explained.

Convincing so many top scorers to join this endeavor wasn't about chasing network traffic or economic benefits.

"What motivated the top scorers the most was a vision: to do good, to use their resources to give back to society, and to align their actions with their values," explained Zhang Boyu, 21, who is also a high school classmate of Zhang Chujian.

"In our own words, it's about lighting up the eyes of young people. Whether it's the young audience or the top students teaching the lessons, we want everyone to have a spark in their eyes and to find their future direction," he added.

The other founder, Liu, 22, is from Hanzhong, Shaanxi province. He became the provincial top scorer in the independent admissions exam and secured a place at Tsinghua University at 17. Before founding House of Youth, he already had a personal video account with over 1 million followers.

According to him, while House of Youth focuses on producing hard-core knowledge videos, it's equally important to incorporate an "internet vibe" to better connect with the audience. For example, top scorers often teach lessons from their dorm rooms rather than a traditional classroom, with Liu himself occasionally playing the role of a distracted student alongside them.

Before last year's gaokao, they also invited several top scorers to record motivational videos for the examinees, which netizens affectionately dubbed "lucky charms".

Equal access

Through their platform, the three founders of House of Youth hope to break down regional barriers and bridge the information gap in educational resources.

Zhang Boyu recalled the words of one of their guest speakers, Sun Weixiang, the top science scorer in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in 2024, who comes from a small city called Baise. Sun mentioned that what was most lacking in his hometown were English teachers — he had hardly taken any English classes before high school.

"What we want is to leverage high-traffic platforms like Douyin to spread knowledge in the most popular way, contributing to educational equity," said Zhang Boyu.

Liu has been volunteering to teach across China since his freshman year, with his footprints covering Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia. "When I saw the living conditions of those students and their curriculum, I could truly empathize with what they really needed," he said.

He remembered his time teaching in Inner Mongolia, where he observed that students' preparation for the gaokao was one-dimensional. They were unaware that social activities and academic competitions could also contribute to gaining extra points. In Gansu, he found that many students had simple goals, focusing only on completing their coursework without considering the importance of long-term planning.

"This is why, at House of Youth, we've created a lot of content that goes beyond textbook knowledge," he said.

Their efforts have received a lot of positive feedback. What impressed Zhang Chujian the most was a message from a high school girl in a small town in Southwest China. Her parents had passed away due to illness, and she was struggling to cope with the heavy academic pressure of her senior year while also taking care of her younger brother. She found it hard to focus on her studies, but House of Youth's videos rekindled her confidence and made her feel that "life is still hopeful".

"At that moment, I felt that all our efforts were not in vain. What we were doing was meaningful and valuable to society," he said.

This summer, the three founders are all about to graduate and plan to hand over House of Youth to their junior schoolmates.

They have declined many business invitations from multichannel network companies (MCNs), as they do not want to commercialize the account. Instead, they hope to pass it on and maintain its ecosystem of youth co-creation.

"House of Youth is not just an account. It's a platform, a belief," said Zhang Boyu.