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A 17-year-old vocational school student from rural China<\/a> became a celebrity on social media after reaching the final round of a math competition, beating many others from top universities and raising questions about the education system<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jiang Ping, who is studying fashion design, finished 12th in the Alibaba Global Math Competition, one of 802 who made it to the final round \u2014 an eight-hour test that takes place Saturday.<\/p>\n A video that included an interview with Jiang got more than 800,000 likes and 90,000 comments after it was posted on social media by Damo Academy, the organizer of the contest. Most expressed their amazement, while some questioned if it was real.<\/p>\n Jiang, who couldn’t be reached for comment, says in the video interview that she didn\u2019t think she deserved to join the competition, even though she enjoys working on advanced math as it \u201cbrings out my desire to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n Congratulations poured in. People visited her parents\u2019 home in a village in Jiangsu province on China\u2019s east coast with alcohol and money to show support. Her pictures were shown on the walls of shopping malls in her hometown, Lianshui. Zhejiang University and Jiangsu University praised her on their Weibo accounts.<\/p>\n While it was unclear how Jiang ended up in vocational school, her story still reminded some in China of the inequality between rural and urban areas<\/a> and how that can make it harder for even talented students to climb the economic ladder.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Jiang Ping is openly celebrated, many Chinese feel deep down inside that her story highlights the hopelessness of Chinese education,\u201d said Jiang Xueqin, a China-based education researcher. \u201cThe odds are fundamentally stacked against ordinary Chinese, without power, wealth, or \u2018guanxi,\u2019” the Chinese term for connections.<\/p>\n Inequality in education appears to have worsened in recent years. Spending on education in rural areas was 17% less than in cities in 2019 for the nine years of compulsory education in China, which does not include high school. It was only 2% lower in 2013, based on calculations from data in a Peking University report on the urban-rural gap in per capita expenditure.<\/p>\n Ministry of Education data show that 70% of students in China’s vocational schools are from rural areas. The high percentage suggests that the education system works like a caste system, Jiang, the researcher said.<\/p>\n Jiang, the math whiz, is the only vocational school student among all the finalists. The others, who are mostly Chinese, mainly come from top-tier universities such as Cambridge, MIT and Caltech, as well as China\u2019s top two, Tsinghua and Peking University. Winners will be awarded $2,000 to $30,000 in prize money.<\/p>\n