A metro station in Zhengzhou used to sell phone deals and fashion. In late August 2026 it started selling something else: Qian Xuesen, Deng Jiaxian, Yuan Longping, Tu Youyou. Rocketry, nuclear physics, hybrid rice, a malaria drug [1].
Nobody in that station is famous for their abs.
Zhengzhou metro station, 27 August 2026 [1].
What China put on the wall
The trend began in Shandong and spread to Anhui, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi and Henan. Shopping centres, metro stations and other busy spaces swapped some commercial adverts for portraits of scientists and what each of them gave the country [1]. Tu Youyou, one of the faces, won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for a new malaria therapy [1].
Chinese netizens, as quoted by Global Times, called them "the true top stars we should be following" [2].
An Indian businessman, Harsh Goenka, looked at the photos and compared them with Indian hoardings, which he said are dominated by politicians and film stars. His line is the one to keep: "what we celebrate shapes what our children aspire to become" [1].
Whoever owns the billboard owns the aspiration.
Before you clap, read the fine print
I want to be fair to the other side, because it is not a clean story.
The photos and the praise come largely from the state-run Global Times, and the reports I read do not say who organised the displays [1][2]. I found no independent evidence that the posters change what any child decides to become.
And the same system, in 2021, told broadcasters to curb "unhealthy fan culture" and said children "should be forbidden from joining activities of 'idol' groups" [5]. That is not inspiration. That is curation by a state.
I do not want a government choosing my idols. So I am not telling you to copy the poster. I am telling you what the poster admits: somebody is always choosing what you look at. In China it is a visible decision. For most of us, my view is that a feed makes that call by default, and nobody signed off on it.
What the numbers say, and what they don't
A China Youth Daily poll of 1,630 people aged 14 to 35 found that at least 95 percent named renowned scientists as life models. 81 percent said the stories of Yuan Longping and Wu Mengchao pushed them toward science [3]. The researcher who ran it said her team had expected young people to prefer becoming "entertainment stars or webcast anchors." The result surprised her [3].
Read the date before you quote it. It was reported in June 2021, weeks after both scientists died on 22 May [3]. That is a grief moment, not an average Tuesday.
On the other side of the world, researcher Matthew Simoneau reports that over 60 percent of middle and high school students he surveyed said they wanted to be social media influencers or picked careers based on what they saw online [4]. The work is forthcoming and the figure combines two answers, so it is not a pure "I want to be an influencer" number [4].
Two polls, two questions. Not a head to head [3][4].
These two polls ask different questions in different countries. Do not conclude that one nation loves science and another loves influencers. The honest reading is smaller and harder to argue with: kids aim at what they are shown.
What I mean, and what I don't
I am not saying only scientists make progress. Teachers and engineers run the society we live in, and they do real good every day. Heroes and heroines on screen do some good too.
But theirs is a small part of it, and it is not enough to make them the people we build our lives around. The point is not who did the most. The point is that we are pointing the idol slot at the wrong person. Enjoy the entertainers. Just do not hand them the answer to "who do I want to become?"
The idol test
An idol should be the person you wish to become. Not someone you want to be near. Someone you want to be.
So run the test. Pick the person you look up to most and answer three questions, one line each.
Three questions, one line each.
If you cannot answer the first one, you are following a face, not a person. If you answer the second one with their weekend, you want the highlight reel. The third one is the real one. In ten years, would you accept their whole life, including the boring, difficult, unglamorous parts?
What to do this week
Run the test on your own list. I am running it on mine.
Put one name where you will see it every day, a person whose work you can describe in a sentence.
Read one of their biographies or one of their lectures instead of one more clip of them.
And if you design anything, remember that a wall is a design decision. Someone decided what goes on it.
Tell me I'm wrong. If you think entertainers deserve the slot, or that I am letting scientists off too easily, make your case. Name your idol and tell me what they actually did. I read every reply.
References
[1] IBTimes UK. (2026, September 6). China's city billboards replace commercial ads with scientists who helped feed and modernise the nation. https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/china-celebrates-scientists-public-screens-1818111
[2] Global Times. (2026, September 1). In China, 'prime city billboards' reserved for scientists: Why this sparked overseas discussion [Opinion]. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202609/1369560.shtml
[3] Zhao, X. (2021, June 11). Poll: Youths hope to keep legacy of scientists alive. China Daily. https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202106/11/WS60c29c4fa31024ad0bac4ffb.html
[4] Simoneau, M. (2026, June 22). From Norway to Wisconsin, children want to be social media influencers when they grow up. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/from-norway-to-wisconsin-children-want-to-be-social-media-influencers-when-they-grow-up-284251
[5] Reuters. (2021, September 3). China cracks down on showbiz for "polluting" society and youth. Euronews. https://www.euronews.com/2021/09/03/uk-china-regulation-entertainment
The Global Times piece is unsigned opinion from a state-run outlet. The IBTimes report gives no start date for the displays and does not name an organiser. The Simoneau figure is from a forthcoming study as described in The Conversation. The two polls are not comparable head to head.