Harvard student finds overnight fame in China

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John Fish, a freshman majoring in Computer Science at Harvard University, found sudden fame in China after a video detailing his daily life was shared on Chinese social media.

Posted in April, the YouTube video shows him describing his daily life at an elite college in the US.

Screenshot on pearvideo

Fish talks about himself strictly following a disciplined schedule. He also lists his goals next to his schedule and checks each box after finishing each goal.

Screenshot on pearvideo

The schedule /Photo via ChinaDaily.

At the end of the video, he also shares a book he’s reading, “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, which talks about how to lead a happy and meaningful life. Fish goes on to describe how every computer science student needs a liberal arts education.

The goals /Photo via ChinaDaily.

His video received over 3.6 million clicks after three months, and his subsequent video, “Reading a book a week is changing my life” has been seen one million times. His YouTube channel has since exploded to over 250,000 subscribers.

"It's been really cool to see how people have responded to that ‘Day in the Life’ video and how the channel has blown up," said Fish to The Record. "I didn't think it would be of this magnitude but I kind of knew (the potential was there)."

After the video was translated and posted on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, it was seen 9.7 million times in just four days, and gathered over 10,000 shares and 30,000 likes.

Screenshot on OMG video

“I was astonished to find he took linear algebra assignment as a rest!” wrote @Qiribingren.

“I finally figured out the reason why somebody could go to Harvard but I could only pray to pass the exams,” read another hot comment with 1,000 likes from @Chenlilichen.

The reviews were largely supportive, with many people agreeing on how vital – and difficult – discipline is to leading a quality life.