China National Radio, Beijing, December 9 - According to the Global Chinese Radio Network, after the Tang Jun diploma scandal, another bombshell was dropped by well-known anti-counterfeiting activist Fang Zhouzi: "President Award girl Ye Fei fabricated information." Ye Fei went to Hungary with her parents at a young age to study, then studied in the United States. In 2009, she published a book: "Be the Best You - The Experience of the Girl Who Won the U.S. President's Award." She has been frequently featured in domestic media. Fang Zhouzi questioned: "The U.S. President's Award is quite common, equivalent to our 'Three Good Students' award."
Fang Zhouzi: There are several types of President Awards, and the one that is relatively difficult to obtain is called the Presidential Scholars Award, which only has 144 winners across the entire United States each year. Ye Fei did not win this award. Based on our investigation, what she actually won is another type of President Award, where every school can have more than ten or even dozens of winners each year. With over 120,000 schools in the United States having the authority to issue this President Award, it comes out to about a million winners each year. Therefore, this award is similar to our domestic school's 'Three Good Students' award.
So how did Ye Fei respond when interviewed by the media?
Ye Fei: This is its name, the President Award, a special award given for education. This award is the highest honor given to high school graduates, and in each of the 50 states in the U.S., there is one high school graduate who receives this award.
Based on what criteria does Fang Zhouzi judge Ye Fei's award as equivalent to the 'Three Good Students' award?
Fang Zhouzi: The rare one is called the U.S. Presidential Scholars Award, while the award Ye Fei received is called the Presidential Award Program, which falls under the category of excellence within the Presidential Award Program. After I revealed this on Weibo, some netizens showed off the awards their children had received, and I saw that they were exactly the same as the award Ye Fei received.
However, Ye Fei said during the interview that the award was personally signed by former President George W. Bush, and during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bush recognized Ye Fei, who was volunteering for the American delegation.
Ye Fei: He said, "Oh, I remember you, I gave you the President Award," though he didn't remember which year. He just knew there was a Chinese girl because I was the only Chinese person, so he remembered giving me the award. I said, "Yes, it was when I graduated from high school in 2005," and he replied, "Oh, 2005," and we started chatting, "That was several years ago, what are you doing now, why are you wearing such clothing?"
Regarding this, Fang Zhouzi believes that it would be impossible for Bush to personally present Ye Fei with the award:
Fang Zhouzi: There are hundreds of thousands of recipients, and the award is decided by the principal of the high school, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the president. The signature on the award is not the president's real signature but a printed one, so there is no reason to say that President Bush personally presented her with the award. If she had won the Presidential Scholar Award, since there are only 144 winners each year, it would be possible for the president to present her with the award. There is no reason for President Bush to specially pick one person out of the over a million people who receive this award each year to present it personally. If she believed that President Bush personally presented her with the award, where is the photo? That would be a significant event, wouldn't it?
With these questions in mind, we interviewed Ms. Sun Ping, Ye Fei's mother:
Sun Ping: She shared her achievements with others, not to show off, but to inspire. If everyone could achieve this, it wouldn't be so easy, crossing three languages and three cultural environments, could it be that simple? Actually, time will tell with this matter.
We don't doubt Ye Fei's excellence, nor do we doubt that she received the President Award, but we are confused whether the award has been intentionally exaggerated. What kind of award did Ye Fei receive? Is it as widespread as Fang Zhouzi claims? Let's listen to Wei Xi, a correspondent for China News Service in the United States:
Journalist: First, we must confirm that the U.S. indeed has a President Award, which began in 1964 and is used to select the most outstanding graduating high school students each year in the U.S. This award generally has only two slots per state each year, awarded to one male and one female student, making it the highest honor a high school student can receive. There are fewer than 141 winners across the U.S. each year.
Secondly, I should mention that the well-known President Award is issued by the Presidential Scholarship Foundation, with the English name "Presidential Scholar." However, easily confused with it is another award issued by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), called the Presidential Education Award, or the American Citizenship Reward Program, which has an entirely different English name. This award is decided by each school itself, given to outstanding students, not just high school students, but also elementary and middle school students. On the NAESP website, you can see an order button where each school can independently purchase certificates and diplomas online, resulting in tens of thousands of winners each year. The U.S. President Award has an official website, its URL being PresidentialScholar.org, where anyone can view the lists, photos, and introductions of past award-winning students. According to Ye Fei's own introduction, she received the U.S. President Award in 2005, but after reviewing the list of 141 winners from 2005 multiple times, among the nine girls of Chinese descent, none were named Ye Fei.
Achievements made by Chinese overseas attract particular attention from the public. And once situations arise that do not match reality, like the Tang Jun diploma forgery incident, the resulting shock is immense. How should we view honors obtained by Chinese abroad? This is worth pondering. Is a U.S. President Award really that important? Let's invite Wang Jian, an observer for China National Voice:
Wang Jian: On a Yahoo forum, I saw two American students exchanging in English about such a conversation. One student said, "I am in eighth grade this year," referring to junior high school as eighth grade, "What does winning the U.S. President Award mean? Is it encouraging me to work hard, or is it a scam?" This post was sent on January 28th this year. Someone below responded, "I won this award when Bush was president, I felt proud, on the other hand, this award does indeed encourage us to continue working hard. The award isn't particularly important, but it's still a good thing," followed by a smiley face.
I think the content of the reply from the student below is actually what I want to say. Winning an award proves that Ye Fei is an outstanding student. We can set aside for now the discussion on the level of her excellence and the degree to which it extends, but the key is, any award in this world is a form of encouragement, aimed at helping you perform better and become better, rather than for bragging rights. I believe that overseas degrees and overseas awards seem to have more appeal in our society, which is somewhat abnormal. Ye Fei won an award in the U.S., let me tell you about the level of American students. An ordinary student from our average class might be the best performer academically in the U.S. It's possible that Ye Fei winning an award in the U.S. might not even qualify her for a 'Three Good Students' award in China. From this perspective, we don't need to assume that foreign awards are scientific or that our awards aren't as prestigious as theirs. The mentality that foreign monks chant better scriptures or that the moon in foreign countries is rounder than in China is actually a psychological weakness existing in our society.