Jiang was the first Chinese woman selected as the student speaker at a Harvard graduation ceremony.
While her success was initially praised by the Chinese media, it soon drew criticism from social media users who questioned whether her “privileged” family background truly represented the broader Chinese student population.
As the controversy escalates, some academics and commentators have begun to examine how it reflects the Chinese public’s growing disillusionment with elite education.
Yuan Changgeng, an anthropologist at Yunnan University who has long studied changes in social attitudes, said that in recent years “China’s social classes have become increasingly rigid and tensions between them have been on the rise”.
