He caught eels for school tuition as a poor youth and today his PhD acknowledgement is inspiring China


A man who battled extreme poverty and family hardship to achieve academic excellence has moved China to tears with his story that has attracted more than 770 million views online.

Huang Guoping grew up without shoes and had to catch eels to pay for school tuition. Then the deaths of his grandmother and father left him orphaned, and while he used education to recover, the experience of extreme poverty left a lasting impression.

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