The Path That Sun Qued Took

Sun Yuchen graduated from Huizhou No. 1 High School, a key high school in the area, but before him, no one from this school had ever been admitted to Peking University.

He was originally a science student, with physics scores consistently in the 20s or 30s. In his first year of high school, he was obsessed with novels and literature, and his grades “consistently ranked in the bottom ten.” By the end of the first semester of his third year, he was still outside the top 100 in his grade.

He applied to participate in the 8th New Concept Composition Competition and the Peking University Independent Admission Exam, but unsurprisingly, he was rejected.

Then, in the 9th New Concept Composition Competition, the gears of fate began to turn.

Sun Yuchen submitted three of his previous essays unchanged to the competition and unexpectedly advanced to the semi-finals. He then systematically studied the styles of past first-prize-winning essays and identified a common theme: innovation, rebellion, and reflection on and critique of the education system.

In the end, he won first place in the New Concept Composition Competition. According to the rules at the time, this qualified him for Peking University’s independent admission process.

In February 2007, during the Peking University independent admission interview, the interviewer didn’t even know which province Huizhou No. 1 High School was in.

A few years later, he graduated top of his class from Peking University’s History Department.

Years later, Sun Yuchen founded TRON and appeared on the cover of Forbes...