This May, a 13-year-old schoolboy who speaks and acts like a government official shot to overnight fame after Internet users latched on to his lack of childlike innocence and criticized the education system for the way he's turned out.

At the age of two, he demonstrated a strong interest in watching China Central Television's 7 pm news; at seven, he adopted the habit of reading the People's Daily newspaper. Now Huang Yibo, who comes from the city of Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province, has published more than 100 articles in newspapers and magazines.

Huang's popularity started with a picture he posted on his microblog. In the picture, he is shown reading some documents, posing like a professional politician and wearing an astonishing "five-bar" armband. Internet users hence nicknamed him as "the five-bar youngster."

Chinese primary school students wear white armbands with red bars to acknowledge their positions as "young pioneers" for the Communist Party. Two bars indicate that a student is a class monitor, three strokes normally mean that the student is a grade-level leader. Huang's five-bar armband indicates that he is the chief of Wuhan's "young pioneers".

Mixed feelings

In the introduction to his blog, Huang writes that he is focused on cultivating his moral discipline, aspires to contribute to humankind and feels responsible for bringing prosperity and stability to the Chinese nation.

Huang's mother told local media that the boy has a great interest in history and politics and that he cares about the livelihood of the Chinese people.

Although Huang has been praised by many, others have cast a doubtful sight on his accomplishments, saying that the child is actually a victim of his parents' own overbearing ambition.

今年五月，一個言行舉止頗有“官樣”的13歲男孩一夜成名。在他身上看不到孩子的天真。網友們對此揪住不放，批評當今的教育體系成就了這樣一個孩子。

兩歲時，他就對中央電視臺晚七點播出的《新聞聯播》表現出了濃厚的興趣；七歲時，他養成了讀《人民日報》的習慣。如今，這個來自湖北省武漢市的男孩黃藝博已經在報刊上發表過100多篇文章。

黃藝博的名聲源于他在微博上貼出的一張照片。照片中，他擺出專業的“官樣”，正在閱讀文件，胳膊上還戴著“五道杠”隊牌，令人咋舌。網民們因此給了他一個綽號：“五道杠少年”。

在中國，小學生成為中國共產黨領導的少年先鋒隊的隊長后，就可以佩戴一種白色臂章，上面標著一道道紅色的杠。兩道杠表示身份是班長，三道杠一般就意味著該學生是年級干部，而黃藝博的五道杠表明他是中國少先隊武漢市總隊的隊長。

復雜的情感反應

黃藝博在自己博客的前言里引用了先賢之語，表示自己有志于修身養性，渴望為人類做出貢獻，并感到身負重任，要為中華民族的繁榮與穩定而奮斗。

他的母親接受當地媒體采訪時表示，黃藝博對歷史和政治有著濃厚的興趣，而且關心民生問題。

黃藝博受到了很多表揚，但也有人對他的成績投來質疑的眼光。他們認為，這個孩子實際上是個受害者，因為他的父母將他們的雄心壯志強加在了孩子身上。