During the national college entrance examination in 2024, a video of an interview with college entrance examination candidate Pang Zhongwang from the "Face to Face" column 7 years ago was rediscovered by the media and triggered a heated discussion on the Internet. In the film, Pang Zhongwang remains positive despite difficulties and setbacks, and his proactive attitude has won praise from many netizens.
In the 2017 college entrance examination, Pang Zhongwang scored 684 points in the science subject and was admitted to Tsinghua University's "Self-Strengthening Plan" with a score reduction of up to 60 points. The reason why he was admitted to Tsinghua University's "Self-Strength Plan" was because of his special family environment. His father is a schizophrenic patient and his mother has lower limb disabilities and limited mobility. Faced with the heavy burden on his family, Pang Zhongwang did not feel sorry for himself, but worked hard, studying hard while taking care of his family. Seven years have passed, how is Pang Zhongwang doing now? "Face to Face" reporter interviewed Pang Zhongwang again.
has once again entered the public eye. Pang Zhongwang is already a 2021 doctoral student in the Department of Precision Instruments, Tsinghua University, and is engaged in research related to optical network information perception. Reporter
: Your life has changed a lot since you came to Tsinghua University. What do you think is the biggest change?
Pang Zhongwang: Before . I may have the feeling that a newborn calf is not afraid of tigers. I thought I could do anything. But in fact, after I came to Tsinghua University, there were so many talents here. You may not be able to be the best in every aspect, but you can definitely find a direction. You are excellent. I feel that I am not a perfect person, but I feel that I can still be called an excellent person. people. Since enrolling at
, Pang Zhongwang has won scholarships from Tsinghua University many times and was also selected as the 2022 "Star of Self-improvement for Chinese College Students". Many caring people have offered to support Pang Zhongwang, but he politely declined. With the school's comprehensive subsidy measures, he has no worries about his study and life. Reporter
: One thing has not changed in , that is, you are still as optimistic and laughing as before.
Pang Zhongwang: Thank you. In fact, it feels like the experience of the entire seven years of college. In fact, I was in a relatively confused state at the beginning. During that period, I blocked a lot of external communication and exchanges. First, I wanted to settle down more quietly. I went to find myself, and secondly, I felt ashamed of the expectations of the outside world. However, after I really entered a field of scientific research that I liked, I returned to a very confident state.
In the first 18 years of his life, Pang Zhongwang was hanging by a thread due to congenital heart disease. He went door-to-door to borrow money while his mother was hospitalized, and he also made money by picking up scraps to pay off debts. However, his desire to change his destiny through knowledge made him The seemingly unfortunate family reveals positivity and optimism amid calmness and warmth. Seven years ago, with the expectations of his family and the attention of society, Pang Zhongwang entered Tsinghua University and started a new stage in his life.
reporter: Is the real campus life of the same as you imagined?
Pang Zhongwang: When I first entered college, I was very panicked because I was worried that the classmates around me would look at me in an unusual way.
Reporter: Do you care about others knowing your past or understanding your past stories?
Pang Zhongwang: When I first entered college, I actually cared about other people's eyes. But that kind of eyes didn't mean that others looked down on me, but that after others saw my experience, they felt that I needed to be in school. Here, they grow faster and become more outstanding than them. I am actually very scared, I am very afraid that I will disappoint the public.
This invisible burden once troubled Pang Zhongwang, but his classmates and teachers at Tsinghua University cured his fear.
Pang Zhongwang: One of my undergraduate roommates actually knew my story, but I didn’t know he knew my story until my junior year.
Reporter: We haven’t communicated like this with each other in the past three years.
Pang Zhongwang: Yes, he never mentioned my past actively. In fact, I was very grateful at the time. Many teachers will ask me for some psychological talks.For example, as teacher Shi Zongkai said, the most important task in Tsinghua is to discover and develop yourself.
reporter: What impact does the sentence have on you?
Pang Zhongwang: My future will no longer be constrained by the praise that many people have given me, but will focus more on what I really like, what I am really good at, and what I really want to grow into .
Pang Zhongwang studied in the Department of Precision Instruments of Tsinghua University for his undergraduate degree. For him, the college entrance examination is just a staged summary, while university means a larger world and more self-realization.
Pang Zhongwang: When I first entered college, I was very ignorant about , and I even felt like I was drifting with the crowd.
Reporter: Is also confusing?
Pang Zhongwang: is right. Because I may not have had a lot of experience since I was a child, and I may not be able to quickly find what I really like, so for a long time, I was mostly in that kind of situation. For example, I saw this classmate doing it. Such a thing seemed very good to me, and I wanted to do it. That classmate did such a thing again, and I felt that it seemed very good, and I wanted to do it.
reporter: Doesn’t have a sense of direction?
Pang Zhongwang: was not available at the beginning. But I think this kind of experience is actually helpful to me, because in this kind of experience, I have both failures and successes. I not only know that I am not good at this, but also know that I am good at that. Even if I fail, I will not be discouraged, nor will I feel that my abilities are limited, because I know where my abilities lie.
In the one and a half years since he entered the school, Pang Zhongwang has continued to try new fields. He has served as the class secretary, life committee member, and publicity committee member. The psychological gap was also resolved through repeated attempts. In this process, his mother Pang Zhiqin had the same influence on him as always.
Pang Zhongwang: Growing up, I felt that my mother taught me a lot. She said that whatever you face, you have to solve. My mother raised me to be a very optimistic person since I was a child. My mother often said People have to look forward, because my mother laughs every day, why should I feel uncomfortable?
Pang Zhongwang’s mother, Pang Zhiqin, has been in pain since she was born. Congenital spina bifida caused underdevelopment of her lower limbs and her legs were amputated. Her parents did not let her go to school for safety reasons. After giving birth to the child, Pang Zhiqin, who was illiterate, named him: Pang Zhongwang.
Pang Zhiqin: This child is my greatest hope. I have never read a book in my life. I envy those who read. I just want him to read and try his best to read as good a book as possible.
Pang Zhongwang: Actually talking about my mother, I think she is a very strong person, she is really a very strong person. I think if she could have been born in the same era as me, she would not be trapped in the prison of disease. I remember she once said something to me. She said that when she was a child, doctors said she would not live to be 20 years old, but she felt that she could double that. I really hope that one day I can have such courage. When faced with someone else's evaluation of me, I can be brave enough to say, I want to double that.
Because of mobility difficulties and unwillingness to trouble others, Pang Zhiqin never went to Tsinghua University to see Pang Zhongwang. What's even more regrettable is that in 2020, Pang Zhiqin was hospitalized due to illness. Accompanied by her family, she completed her 48 years of life.
Pang Zhongwang: In the past, I was not able to empathize with and understand what kind of illness my mother was suffering from, because she never told me or let me see the areas where she had the disease, but at that time she was lying On the hospital bed, I saw for the first time those wounds that were so deep that the bones were visible. I actually felt very, very distressed. In fact, the day before my mother passed away, she felt that she was aware of it. At that time, she called my grandma and me to her side, and kept saying that she couldn't worry about me.
While his mother was hospitalized, Pang Zhongwang was interviewing for qualifications to directly study for a doctorate. Before Pang Zhiqin died, he heard the good news that his son had passed the interview.
Pang Zhongwang: Because of her gastric bloating, the doctor inserted a tube into her and did not allow her to drink water. My mother actually loves to drink water, but she was not allowed to drink water during that time. I just dipped some cotton swab in her mouth, because there was no other way, the doctor wouldn't let her drink, but then I said, if I had known it would end like this, I should have said we drank enough.
Reporter: Actually speaking from your heart, what kind of blessing do you want to give your children?
Pang Zhiqin: I wish him the best to follow his own path, do a good job in his studies, and contribute to the country in the future and help more people.
Pang Zhongwang: After my mother passed away, many of the things I dreamed about were of me pushing her to the market when I was a child. In fact, I rarely express my emotions in many languages in front of my mother. Many times, I may be more willing to do something with action. I feel that she gave me such a name. The action I can take is to live up to the future. The name she gave me.
After graduating from the undergraduate program in 2021, Pang Zhongwang will continue to study for a doctoral degree in the Department of Precision Instruments of Tsinghua University.
Reporter: Do you feel that the pressure of is particularly different from the previous stage?
Pang Zhongwang: I may prefer to think about and solve problems, and so does my mentor. In fact, he has always encouraged me. I still remember one time, on a Saturday night when I was in my first year of Ph.D., I was taking a shower and the moment hot water poured on my head, I suddenly figured out a problem.
reporter: inspiration burst out.
Pang Zhongwang: That night, I first had a phone call with a senior in our laboratory. We made a phone call for half an hour and then ran to the laboratory. The two of us could be said to be discussing, but in fact they were quarreling. In the middle of the night, the last thing I thought about at that time helped us solve a problem of high-precision positioning in our system, and also published my first sci (Science Citation Index).
An accidental deduction calculation allowed Pang Zhongwang to construct a new set of experimental ideas and processing procedures, which also allowed him to obtain the first invention patent and academic paper in his scientific research career.
Reporter: Is the paper very important to you?
Pang Zhongwang: I think is very important. It is my first paper, because before that, I may have felt whether I had the ability to do scientific research and whether I could really solve some of the problems faced in actual scientific research. question, but that paper gave me the answer, it told me you can.
During his doctoral studies, Pang Zhongwang published SCI papers as the first/co-author in the first area journals of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, photonics research and journal of lightwave technology, and obtained three national invention patents. His research on information sensing in optical networks is aimed at major national scientific and technological needs.
Pang Zhongwang: We hope to explore more possibilities of optical fiber communication networks. For example, often in the rainy season, we can see the collapse of some roadbeds in the news. We are wondering if it is possible to use such a communication optical cable. , to monitor and warn such information in advance.
In addition to scientific research, Pang Zhongwang will also participate in different types of social practice activities. He joined the Chunlei volunteer education program and went to Zaozhuang mountainous area in Shandong to participate in volunteer education activities. There, he served as the first grade teacher, imparting knowledge to the children and sharing his own stories with them.
Pang Zhongwang: Many of those children are actually children without their parents around them.
reporter: left-behind children.
Pang Zhongwang: There was a little girl at that time. She would often come over and hold your legs while crying, and she would just cry there. If you asked her, she would not say anything.
reporter: Will see its own shadow in them?
Pang Zhongwang: In fact, when I was a child, I would do some things deliberately to attract the attention of my family, and I was eager to get the care and love of others.Her situation may be very similar to that of me when she was a child. I also hope that she can receive more care from people, and that she can continue to strengthen herself, both externally and internally, and bravely step out of her own world.
According to the plan, Pang Zhongwang will graduate as a doctoral student in two years. The glory of the college entrance examination is a thing of the past. Pang Zhongwang has spent 7 years proving to the world that he is still a person who can shine.
reporter: What is the real achievement of that you think you can be proud of now?
Pang Zhongwang: My current situation is still about hard work, not about harvest. If I look back on my current life experiences, the only ones I can proudly talk about are the college entrance examination and scientific research. But I feel that in the longer term, what I may be proud to talk about will not be these two things. It may be my career. Things that I feel I am proud of may still be waiting for me in the future.
producer | Liu Bin
reporter | Gu Bing
planner | Meng Ke
editor and director | Ding Fang
camera | Liu Hongbo Yang Fan Gao Zhong
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