Illustration: Peter C. Espina

Beijing has been idolizing one young man as the paradigm of academia, a mathematical genius who, since the age of 10, has been accosted by assorted television channels asking him patronizing questions. The latest slew came when he demanded his parents buy him a house in Beijing. 

His name is Zhang Xinyang. The 16-year-old prodigy is studying for his PhD at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and is unhappy with his current living conditions (on campus).

He may be a genius, he may be the youngest PhD student in the country, he may have all the looks and geeky charm of a character from the Big Bang Theory (although he's probably capable of being more funny) but already he's being beaten down, just like the rest of the students.

In class, he suggests his fellow students look at him with contempt, as a by-product of the overly competitive system. When Zhang demanded his parents buy him an apartment, he was also under fire from the legions of drones on the Internet.

But why? He's obviously an intelligent young man being forced to grow up faster than he should. All he asked for is something that every other person in the country is begging for as well.

Student accommodation is notoriously squalid, particularly in northwest Beijing's student hub of Haidian district, where accommodation is so packed its residents have been dubbed "ant tribes." The problem drew the attention of creative elder Huang Rixin, who designed capsule apartments with preposterously cheap rent for students who don't mind living in shipping containers.

Zhang put it best in his own words: "What use is a doctorate if I don't have a place to live in?" With hundreds of thousands of students enrolling at universities across the country and world every year, competition is stiff. This has triggered degrees to lose their value, as has happened in many European countries.

We no longer live in the imperial era, where the few educated men in the country could be expected to start on the top wage. Now, many young people have degrees or even PhDs and employers have their pick.

Housing is no longer just a place to live and if Zhang is as skilled in mathematics as he claims, he will have already worked this out. It's one thing to have a roof over your head, but in a growing economy unused to a banking system where interest rates are strictly controlled along with the rest of the economy, housing is your golden ticket for the future.

Housing will always be in demand and fluctuate in value, giving buyers more bang-for-their-buck as the years go by, assuming the bubble doesn't burst. What Zhang says is common sense and surely the dense Internet-dwelling population has similar sentiments. If there's a flaw to be found in his argument, it's just that he demands his parents provide for him.