Kid who excelled in contest scrutinized

The Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said on Monday that it has launched an investigation into suspicion of fraud in connection with a sixth-grader who took third place in a national science contest last year for his research on colon cancer that was conducted at the institute.

The institute said in a statement that the child, surnamed Chen, was the son of a researcher at the facility. The contest's organizing committee and the Yunnan Association for Science and Technology, the organization that recommended Chen's research for the national award, told local media that they are also investigating the situation.

On Sunday, pictures of Chen winning third prize at the 34th China Adolescents Science and Technology Innovation Contest last year went viral on Chinese social media. His project had also won first prize at a provincial-level innovation contest in Yunnan.

The national contest is jointly hosted by the China Association for Science and Technology, the country's science and education ministries and other government bodies. It attracts around 10 million participants per year, according to the contest's website.

Chen's project examines the roles a mutated gene called C10orf67 plays in causing colon cancer using gene-editing, animal models, clinical sample analysis and other scientific tools, according to the project description. Photos of the research data and notes, as well as the child conducting the experiment, are also posted on the contest's website.

Netizens' reactions quickly went from wowing the work of a child prodigy to crying foul after many pointed out that it is bizarre how a sixth grader from Panlong Elementary School in Kunming, Yunnan province, managed to complete graduate school level research in a little over a year.

According to Chen's research notes, he didn't even know what a gene was at the beginning of the project, and somehow after five days, he had mastered complex biological techniques such as the polymerase chain reaction for messenger RNA and creating fluorescent labels.

The turning point of his research came when Chen's project adviser brought him to the Kunming institute to join research work with "Teacher Chen" and "Teacher Yang", who many have speculated are the parents of the young student that did the work.

On Dec 19, the Kunming institute published a paper on the C10orf67 gene in the journal National Science Review that overlaps with the research done by the child. The paper featured researcher Chen Yongbin as one of the writers, fueling speculation that he was the boy's father.

Chen Ruping, the deputy director of education development research at the Ministry of Education, said last year that some parents have taken advantage of these contests to stack up extracurricular accolades for their children, which would help their kids get into better schools.

"These actions have seriously violated the purpose and nature of these competitions and have created extremely negative effects on the education ecosystem," he said, adding that the competitions are meant to encourage comprehensive development for children.

In April last year, the ministry published a white list featuring 29 approved national contests for elementary and middle schoolers. The move aimed to eliminate unregulated, "pay-to-win" competitions that are detrimental to educational equality.

In 2018, the Beijing city government stopped granting bonus points to prize winners of the China Adolescents Science and Technology Innovation Contest during the college admission process.