#trending: Student in Taiwan performing poorly, mother looks in schoolbag to find drawing of army battle formation

TAIWAN — A Taiwanese mother who was agonising over her son's poor grades found a detailed sketch of thousands of Chinese medieval army troops that was kept in his schoolbag. The drawing was so intricate, online users were awed and persuaded the mother not to suppress or hide her son's talent.

In a Facebook post of the image shared last Friday (June 24), it was said that the mother wrote about how her child had been performing poorly in recent tests at school. Distressed, she decided to look at his school books to figure out why.

That was when she found "千军万马" (qian jun wan ma) — a Chinese idiom for a magnificent army, literally "a thousand troops and ten thousand horses".

The Facebook post received more than 3,200 comments and 1,000 shares, with people lauding the young boy for his artistic skill and "military genius". Many were full of praise for his patience and talent, begging his mother: "Don't suppress this child's talent and destiny."

One declared: "He's obviously an artist who's being restricted by exams!"

Another disagreed: "He's a great military adviser who's being restricted by the vocation of a student."

One other person remarked: "What (your) son should be studying isn't history and numbers, but Sun Tzu's The Art of War."

In the comments under a Facebook repost of the image, which amassed another 44,800 reactions, others began to share their own children's detailed artworks, joking: "Is this the same child?"

The image has also made it to other social media platforms such as 9Gag, where commentators talked about their own experiences of performing badly in school, "draw(ing) on anything and everything", and later going on to forge their own successful paths in life.

One said: "He's just a kid. Let him dream about everything and do everything. Grades are not as important as you think."

In Taiwanese Facebook groups, the comments were flooded with references to the Chinese literary classic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Many Facebook users said that the child may be the "reincarnation" of famous military strategist Zhuge Liang from the classic: "This is the Qimen Bagua Array, your child is the reincarnation of Kong Ming!"

Some online users took the drawing very literally, seriously analysing which side would win.

"It depends on whether there is back-up infantry on the left," one observed. "The calvary and chariots should break through the opposing front, then the infantry should enter; of course, there should also be calvary on the right, but there may be a limited number..."

A 9Gag user had a different opinion: "A calvary charge against a spear wall?!? That's terrible tactics, the child needs help."

Jokingly, another Facebook user wrote: "A huge battle is about to break out, and all you care about is exams!"