Yes, recently Zhang Xuefeng has once again made the headlines.
As a well-known figure in the Chinese education field, he passed away due to cardiac arrest on March 24, 2026. Regarding the relevant details, he suddenly felt unwell after running at the company, and because he missed the golden opportunity for treatment, the rescue was ultimately unsuccessful.
Even though a lot of people feel sorry about his death, I think his influence was mainly self – serving rather than beneficial to students or the public.
First of all,He profited from people’s anxiety.
he took advantage of the anxiety of students and parents. Through live – streaming, he made a bunch of super one – sided remarks, like “Literature is useless” and “Journalism is dead“. This really caught the attention of students and their parents who were eager to learn. He monetized people’s insecurities about education. The reason he’s so popular isn’t so much his ability to read the situation as it is his exploitation of the public’s anxiety.
Secondly, he treated education as instrument.
He established a professional evaluation system based on employment and called on everyone to choose the truly good majors that he believed in. The most direct result was that the scores of those majors he praised kept rising, while the scores of those not recognized by him kept dropping.
Some succeeded, some failed.
I think he was essentially a businessman who constantly stimulated and sold students’ and parents’ inner anxiety by taking advantage of the distorted educational environment in China.
A video of Zhang Xuefeng’s educational guidance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8Xf2dSfl4
Because employment situation is grim, I think this is the only reason for his fame.
Essentially, it’s because all students and parents were fantasizing about smoothing out the so-called information gap and achieving a smooth life of their so-called dream, so these constantly expanding fantasies nourished Zhang Xuefeng’s money and fame.
Nowadays, people are commemorating this person who died from overwork, a person whose desires and values destroyed him. In fact, it was his own choice. His cause of death was not fatigue. I think it was because of arrogance. Arrogance towards his values, arrogance towards his body.
What a conceited and self-abased person
We should recognize that his influence on the vast majority of the Chinese people has nothing to do with public interests. Rather, it is more about magnifying the anxiety caused by the flaws in China’s education system for personal gain.
References and Links
Zhang Xuefeng picture: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/zhang-xuefeng-china-exam-tutor-turned-influencer-dies-at-41
Han Tianyong 
Yinan Zhou 
Xinyue HOU