With so many people to outshine, competition is absolutely cutthroat in China. That’s why it’s always important to have a killer résumé on hand, even if you’re only still in kindergarten.
This week, images of the 15-page CV of a Shanghai kindergartener have gone viral on Chinese social media, prompting many recent college graduates to wonder how they are supposed to compete with a 5-year-old with such a “wealth of experiences,” “wide-range of hobbies,” and so rich of parents.
The résumé begins by listing the boy’s many accomplishments in his short time here on earth, as well as his parents’ bonafides — both of them graduated from Shanghai’s Fudan University and are senior executives at Fortune 500 companies.
It then goes on to describe eight of the kid’s positive personality traits, including his “strength,” as evidenced by the fact that he never cries when getting shots at the doctor’s office; his “confidence,“ demonstrated by his complete lack of stage fright while serving as the host of his kindergarten’s annual performance; and his “fortitude,” shown by how he absorbs criticism and then rededicates himself to his studies, rather than pouting.
As far as academics go, the boy is said to have studied various form of mathematics, including spatial thinking, logical reasoning, and geometric cognition, and to have performed science experiments to understand important principles such as buoyancy, magnetic force, and gravity.
Perhaps most impressively, the résumé claims that the kid has read upwards of 10,000 Chinese and English books in his life with the last five pages of the CV giving a long listing of ever single English-language book that he has read, including 500 already this year.
When he’s not reading or studying, the 5-year-old writes that he likes to spend his time enriching himself through hobbies that include: playing the piano, breakdancing, football, and “graffiti art.”
However, not only is this kid talented, but he’s also a cultured world traveler with one of the pages of the CV showing a map of all the places that he has been to, with pins on a number of locations in Japan and around Southeast Asia.
After reading this extremely extensive résumé, Chinese netizens couldn’t help but be, sarcastically, impressed. “I just graduated from university and my CV does not measure up to his,” sighed one Weibo user.
While some simply mocked the silliness of the CV, others worried that too much pressure was being put on the kid at such an early age. “I feel stressed out just reading his daily schedule, I don’t know how the kid handles it,” wrote one web user.
“Is he happy?” another wondered, simply.