On July 13th, young female writer Jiang Fangzhou apologized in a blog post after her master’s degree was revoked by Renmin University of China (hereinafter referred to as “RUC”). Previously, Tsinghua University professor Xiao Ying publicly reported that Jiang Fangzhou’s master’s thesis was “completely fraudulent,” which she denied on July 5th. RUC reported on the same day that it was only a matter of improper citation with no academic misconduct involved.
RUC released a statement on July 13th, revealing new clues about alleged academic misconduct in the master’s thesis of Jiang Fangzhou, a 2019 graduate of the School of Literature. After verification, it was found that Jiang Fangzhou’s master’s thesis had 9 instances of textual overlap with a foreign journal article, without proper citations or references.
The university declared that Jiang Fangzhou’s actions constituted academic misconduct and decided to revoke her master’s degree.
Following this, Jiang Fangzhou posted an apology on her personal Weibo, stating, “I accept RUC’s handling of this matter. To the readers who have been disturbed and disappointed by this incident, I apologize. I deeply apologize for the consequences faced by my teachers in this matter.”
On July 3rd, Tsinghua University professor Xiao Ying accused Jiang Fangzhou on Weibo of “comprehensive fabrication” in her master’s thesis at Renmin University and provided multiple evidence photos.
On August 11th last year, Xiao Ying published an article on “Xiao Ying Aesthetics,” publicly accusing Jiang Fangzhou, a 2019 graduate of RUC’s School of Literature, of serious plagiarism and widespread fabrication in her master’s thesis. Over the next 10 months, several supplementary reports were submitted. In early April this year, Xiao Ying sent the initial report via email to the administrative officials of RUC’s School of Literature.
The thesis in question was submitted by Jiang Fangzhou in 2019 and was titled “Three Identities of Mary Shelley – Creation of ‘Frankenstein’ and Questions about the Future of Humanity.”
On July 5th, Jiang Fangzhou denied the allegations, accusing Xiao Ying of long-term attacks, insults, and defamation, and stated that she had reported the matter to the police.
It is worth noting that on the same day, RUC announced that Jiang Fangzhou had a serious lack of awareness regarding the importance of annotations in her master’s thesis, with some annotations and individual text expressions being academically improper but not constituting academic misconduct.
The school had a meeting with the student’s supervisor, temporarily suspending their graduate student enrollment qualification for a year; with the dean of the School of Literature, ordering them to make necessary corrections within a specified timeframe; and demanding the Degree Evaluation Committee of the Commission for Literature and Art Studies to submit a written report on corrections and implement them effectively.
Public information indicates that Xiao Ying is currently a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Philosophy at Tsinghua University. She has also conducted post-doctoral research at Peking University’s Department of Chinese.
Jiang Fangzhou, a well-known young female writer, created controversy in 2008 when she was admitted to Tsinghua University with a 60-point deduction on her entrance exam scores. After graduating in 2012, she served as the deputy editor of the magazine ‘New Weekly’. In 2016, she entered RUC’s School of Literature’s Creative Writing Graduate Program under the guidance of writer Yan Lianke, earning her master’s degree in 2019.