Rather than indulge in smartphones and games, Zhang Yixuan prefers to spend his summer vacation walking in nature, encountering little creatures like shrimps and crabs. The 17-year-old went viral on Sina Weibo recently for his knowledge of biology, which led him to discover a new species of freshwater crabs of the genus (属) Sinolapotamon in 2022.
As his father, who was born in a rural area, loved catching fish and crabs himself at an early age, Zhang was always taken outdoors by his parents to explore as much as possible and observe little creatures quietly without any disruptions (打扰).
Now a grade 12 student at Yulin High School, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Zhang has dozens of "living treasures" that he has collected from the outdoors, including insects, fish, shrimps and crabs. "This one is a species of Nanhaipotamon that I caught in a mountainous area," said Zhang, pointing to a vibrant (色彩鲜亮的) crab moving its amusing eyes around. "You can see it just shed (蜕去) its shell."
There is also a row of empty bottles and jars in Zhang's room to store his specimens (标本). "I can notice the slight differences between two shrimps, and then I take them back to my room for further observation," said Zhang.
It is the microscope his father bought him that makes the bedroom look more like a mini biology lab than anything else. It's a place where Zhang can devote himself to identifying shrimps or observing crabs day and night. With the help of his microscope, Zhang immerses himself in decoding (解码) the natural world. Sometimes he spends hours simply examining a piece of fish scale (鱼鳞), the leg of a crab or the antenna (触角) of an insect. He often works so late that his parents have to force him to go to bed.
"I'm often amazed by what I see while placing these tiny and fragile (脆弱的) things under the microscope. No matter how humble an insect is, each life is so delicately and uniquely structured," said Zhang.
