I read a short piece on Chinese social media. It was written by a young man, his first name being Liang. He calls himself Harvard Daddy Liang or Uncle Liang. This is an interesting phenomenon of self-presentation and branding in the digital age, where individuals often adopt titles to enhance their personal brand and social media presence.
Liang graduated from Renmin University of China in 2005 and then was sent by government to Harvard Kennedy School, where he graduated in 2011. After he got back from Harvard, he started some company offering services to people who study abroad. He made a fortune in the process and became a small internet celebrity as Harvard Daddy Liang or Uncle Liang.
Two things make me pause a second. First, there are tons of people graduating from Harvard in America and are successful from there. I have never heard of anyone going about branding himself Harvard Daddy or MIT Daddy. Perhaps Liang desperately needs to use Harvard to grab readers' attention.
Second, many years ago, when I was working with a high schooler on her college application essays, my daughter made a comment on one of the essays, that is, imagine what the readers would think of this... Now I'm the reader of this Harvard Daddy.
Something doesn't sit well with me when someone of my son's age calls himself Daddy to me, as if he talked to me as my daddy or what? I am surprised that people will brand themselves anything in order to become internet celebrity 网红 (wǎng hóng).