Recently, Jia Qianqian, the daughter of Shaanxi writer Jia Pingwa and an associate professor at the School of Literature at Northwest University, made modifications to her resume, sparking attention once again. Some media outlets believe that Jia Qianqian’s proactive revision of her undergraduate education timeline may be a “response” to the controversies surrounding her in 2022.
Jia Qianqian made two changes to her resume: first, she completed her doctoral studies at Northwest University in December 2024 and has now obtained a Ph.D., a modification that is not controversial.
The second change involves her undergraduate education at Northwest University, which was altered from “Bachelor’s degree in Chinese Language and Literature from the Chinese Department from September 1998 to July 2003” to “Bachelor’s degree from Northwest University from September 2000 to July 2003.”
Staff members from the School of Literature at Northwest University informed the media on February 24th that all personal information about teachers on the official website, including Jia Qianqian’s, is provided by the individuals themselves. Therefore, both modifications were made voluntarily by Jia Qianqian.
Jia Qianqian’s proactive adjustment of the timeline for her undergraduate education, starting from 2000 instead of 1998, has once again drawn attention.
Mainland Chinese media outlets have raised several questions:
1. What was Jia Qianqian doing from September 1998 to July 2000? Was she also studying Chinese Language and Literature at Northwest University during that time?
2. If Jia Qianqian was studying Chinese Language and Literature at Northwest University from September 1998 to July 2000, was it at the associate or undergraduate level?
3. How did Jia Qianqian manage to complete her undergraduate studies in just three years from September 2000 to July 2003? Was it an early graduation or is there another hidden story behind it? Why was it previously reported as a five-year undergraduate program completion?
4. If Jia Qianqian was pursuing an associate degree from September 1998 to July 2000 at Northwest University and then switched to an undergraduate program in September 2000, what exams or assessment procedures facilitated this transition? Does this fall under the category of “associate to bachelor degree transfer” (different from “associate to bachelor degree upgrade,” referring to students at associate degree institutions transferring to corresponding year levels at bachelor degree institutions and ultimately obtaining a bachelor’s degree)?
5. What procedures did Jia Qianqian go through if she indeed transferred from an associate to a bachelor’s degree program?
Reports suggest that the flexible and arbitrary nature of the timeline for Jia Qianqian’s undergraduate education is naturally hard to accept. The statement from the School of Literature at Northwest University that “teachers provide their information themselves” does not paint the whole picture, as the institution naturally bears the responsibility of verification. Jia Qianqian’s resume revision is not merely a personal matter, as it involves a series of issues such as the suitability and integrity of publicly-funded teachers.
As the daughter of Jia Pingwa, Jia Qianqian garnered public attention in 2022 when she was included in the prospective development member list of the China Writers Association. However, after some of her works were questioned for their literary quality, the China Writers Association ultimately decided not to include her in the new member list for 2022.
During that controversy, netizens speculated that her five-year undergraduate education was actually an “associate to bachelor degree upgrade,” raising doubts about her academic abilities.
Online scrutiny of Jia Qianqian’s works can be traced back to January 2021. At that time, “Literary Free Talk” published an article by Tang Xiaolin titled “Jia Qianqian goes viral, highlighting the chaos in the poetry world.” Subsequently, several poems such as “Clear Day,” “Delicious,” “Cucumber, More Than Just Food,” and others appeared online, with some netizens mocking them as “feces, urine, and body” poems.
According to a report by the Topnews, in September 2022, Jia Qianqian dispelled rumors by stating, “The poems ‘Clear Day,’ ‘Delicious,’ and ‘Cucumber, More Than Just Food’ were not written by me and have nothing to do with me.”