Chinese Universities Revoke Academic Degrees of Two Celebrity Writers Over Plagiarism

Two prominent Chinese literary figures, including a former child prodigy and the daughter of a famous novelist, have been stripped of their master’s degrees and academic positions following high-profile plagiarism investigations.

The penalties against celebrity writer Jiang Fangzhou and former Northwest University associate professor Jia Qianqian mark a significant expansion of China’s crackdown on academic misconduct, moving from the hard sciences into the humanities. The disciplinary actions, announced this week, were largely driven by grassroots internet sleuths who uncovered systematic copying in the authors’ academic work.