Recently, in places that everyone did not notice, we Chinese students have quietly slaughtered the world list again.
At the 63rd IMO International Mathematical Olympiad in 2022, the Chinese team won the first place.
Moreover, the gold content of the TOP1 this time is extremely high, because all 6 players of the Chinese team have obtained full scores.
It is also the only team to receive this award since the competition was founded in 1994. Last time, it was team USA that did it 28 years ago. I have to say that I really want to applaud these Chinese children
But in addition to the celebration, there were also some discordant voices.
Some netizens questioned: Chinese students are so good at mathematics, why are there no international academic awards?
When you think about it, it is. The Fields Medal mentioned by netizens is the highest international award in the field of mathematics and can be called the Nobel of mathematics.
And the local winners of this award... From 1936 to the present, there has not been a single one, which is really incredible.
From a personal point of view, Chinese students have also worked hard since childhood, and they have not fallen behind in math classes and math competitions.
From the perspective of the general environment, all sectors of society have indeed provided a lot of help.
For example, top scholars such as Yau Chengtong returned to China to develop mathematics education; For example, Lenovo and other enterprises have donated and cooperated with the Qiuzhen College of Tsinghua University, which was established by Yau Chengtong, in an effort to improve the mathematical education environment of domestic universities by providing better resources and reversing this situation.
But even so, many Chinese students who are good at mathematics will disappear after entering the university and will not be associated with international awards and honors.
What is wrong with China's mathematics education?
"You're Chinese, and math must be good, right?" This sentence is understood by people with study abroad experience.
This stereotype is not unfounded, and the mathematical ability of Chinese students has indeed left overseas countries a few streets, especially in basic education.
Taking the United States as an example, Chinese students have comprehensively crushed the American small pot friends in terms of grades and study time.
Judging from the results of the international PISA authoritative education evaluation in previous years, in the mathematics assessment of 15-year-old students around the world, Chinese children learn mathematics for a long time per week, far exceeding the international average, and their mathematical scores also rank first.
Not only that, in many international competitions, Chinese children are also unyielding. For example, in the Youth International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), the Chinese team has won gold in the world.
It is undeniable that in basic education, Chinese students say first, and no one dares to say second.
However, higher education is not satisfactory...
Last year, the journal Nature conducted a study. After a follow-up evaluation of more than 30,000 undergraduate students in Russia, China, India, and the United States, only Chinese students' mathematical skills have declined significantly after college.
Light Blue: Level at first year of enrollment *Blue: Level at the end of the second year *Red: Skill improvement
The most intuitive embodiment is that even if Chinese students have unlimited scenery in the IMO, they are still powerless in the face of professional mathematics awards such as the Fields Medal.
As of 2022, there are 64 Fields Medal winners worldwide. Counting this year's new winners, the United States has already won 15 places, and France, britain, and Russia occupy most of the country.
The picture shows the award data as of the previous edition (2018).
In China, there is not a single Fields Medal winner Chinese mainland local origin, and there are only 2 winners of Chinese descent.
One is Tao Zhexuan, an Australian-Chinese. The other is the world's first Chinese to win the award, Yau Chengtong.
In 1983, Yau was awarded the Fields Medal in Poland
In 1982, Yau chengtong proved the Calabi conjecture and the positive mass conjecture and won the Fields Medal. This was a great encouragement for the development of Chinese society and mathematics at that time.
So the question is, from the peak of the early Olympiad results to the late international awards, what is wrong with China's higher mathematics education?
Mathematics has always been good Chinese proud, but why is it so difficult for China to get out of even a Fields Medal winner?
In fact, the reason is also obvious, interest + effort, indispensable.
Without interest, mathematics can only be a tool man:
Looking back at my student days, although many mathematical formulas and theorems are not remembered, the painful experience of being sent to the Olympiad class is engraved in my bones.
For most Chinese students, the tools of the Olympic number are full of human attributes. Learning mathematics is not due to interest, but the temptation of extra points in the college entrance examination is too great.
After leaving high school, how was math treated?
Judging from the data, in the past decade, mathematics has not even appeared on the popular list of professional applications. Respect is the attitude of most Chinese students to it.
When you need the most effort, you lie flat:
After entering the university, the high pressure of preparing for the exam suddenly disappeared and became a state of self-conscious learning. It seems that as long as you don't hang up, play games, and talk about love, everything will be fine.
Therefore, in this 4 years that should have been shining in the professional field, many people are more willing to mess up. From the first two days of the #90% of students were cancelled from the department of student registration due to the game #hot search, as can be seen.
But in contrast, in the United States, this stage is precisely the most demanding stage of American universities.
- 3 times no visit to class = hanging subject
- Do not participate in the class discussion = hanging subject
- Homework opportunistic copying of other people's = hanging section
In addition to the thousands of reasons for hanging subjects, there are endless quizzes, essays, small speeches, and heavy mid-term and final exams waiting for you.
And these are forcing students to learn professional knowledge and expand their professional fields, otherwise it is really difficult to graduate.
According to Univ Stats, the average graduation rate of U.S. colleges and universities is only 53%, and the name of "wide in and strict out" is really hammered.
So, it's no wonder that some of the "have you ever seen the Harvard Library at four o'clock in the morning?" and other such things flowed out.
After all, they really have to desperately study, otherwise the GPA is below 2.0 warning or Hitti expulsion + revocation of the F1 visa package.
This loose and tight contrast may be the reason why people have achieved great results in mathematics.
But what is interesting is that both China, the king of Olympic mathematics, and the United States, which has many mathematicians, feel that their mathematics is too poor!
In fact, when we reflect on the difference between higher math education, the United States says: It is I who need to reflect!
An article in the US "National Interest Magazine" mentioned that in the future field of artificial intelligence, China will become a decisive force, because Chinese mathematics is too good.
Although this logic seems outrageous, it actually makes sense. Because, from ancient times to the present, mathematics is the core of all basic sciences and promotes the development of the whole society.
- In the 17th century, Newton invented calculus, which allowed us to get in touch with mechanics, celestial kinematics, and so on
- In 1957, the Soviet Union used its powerful computing power to develop the first artificial earth satellite, opening the space age belonging to mankind
- In the 20th century, the American mathematician von Neumann improved the concept of computer design, and later we had digital computers
Even, 27 of the 50 Nobel laureates in economics have made their main contribution to the use of mathematical methods to solve economic problems. Like what:
- 2019 laureate, providing an experimental approach to alleviating global poverty through mathematical analysis;
- 2018 laureate, designed and created long-term sustainable economic growth models;
- The 1997 winner, given the famous Black-Scholes option pricing formula, became the way of thinking about designing new financial products.
In modern times, mathematics has penetrated into all aspects of life.
The mobile phones, computers, and game consoles you play every day; Programming, statistics, big data you use for your work; Aerospace, energy, 5G, artificial intelligence you see in the news...
Too many fields need to solve problems and innovate through mathematical models and deductions. From daily life, to national development, to the future of mankind, the fields you can think of are all the shadows of mathematics.
Therefore, in today's national development and international racing, whoever can get the mathematical initiative can become a winner.
Therefore, China also urgently needs to cultivate a large number of local mathematical talents, so that ambitious, interested and talented students can lead China's future development.
In the past two years, more and more people have realized how important it is to develop China's indigenous mathematical capabilities.
In recent years, many scholars have used their own methods to promote the cultivation of local talents in China.
For example, Mr. Zhu Songchun, a top international AI scholar, left UCLA and returned to China to join Peking University as a teacher to cultivate AI talents in China. Dr. Chen Gao, who solved Hawking's gravitational transient problem, also returned to his alma mater this year to teach and continue to study geometry topics.
There is also the first Chinese winner of the Fields Medal mentioned above, Mr. Yau Chengtong, and there are too many legends about him:
- At the age of 22, he received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley
- At the age of 27, he conquered the world's differential geometry problem "Calabi conjecture"
- At the age of 33, he won the Fields Medal, the highest international award in the field of mathematics;
- Since 1987, he has been a professor of mathematics and physics at Harvard University for more than 30 years.
- The 61-year-old won the Wolf Prize in Mathematics for his profound impact on the many fields of geometry and physics.
On April 20 of this year, Mr. Yau Chengtong retired from Harvard and joined Tsinghua full-time to teach.
His return has undoubtedly brought a shot in the arm for the development of Chinese mathematics.
Mr. Qiu Chengtong once said that in this life he only had two wishes:
One is to become a great mathematician;
The other is to contribute to the development of mathematics in the motherland, to cultivate Chinese students with mathematical talents, and to make them world-class scholars who have grown up in China.
After all, a strong youth is a strong country, and Chinese mathematics can be expected in the future.
Obviously, the first wish has been fulfilled, and this return is to fulfill the second wish.
Of course, in the cultivation of talents, domestic universities are also sparing no effort to contribute.
In 2019, the University of Science and Technology of China launched the "Sino-French Mathematics Excellence Class" to allow Chinese students and the holy land of mathematics in France to establish exchanges. Similarly, there is the "Sino-Russian Mathematics Center" established by Peking University and Moscow University, which uses scientific research and cooperation to enhance the mathematical horizons of Chinese students.
When it comes to the efforts of universities, it is necessary to mention the Truth Seeking College established by Tsinghua University in 2021.
As early as 2015, with the approval of the Ministry of Education, the Mathematical Science Center of Tsinghua University was renamed "Yau Chengtong Mathematical Science Center", hoping to promote the cultivation of outstanding mathematical talents.
In March 2021, Tsinghua University also established Qiuzhen College to ensure the smooth development of the "Yau Chengtong Mathematical Science Leading Talent Training Program".
It can be said that it is an entity unit with the sole mission goal of cultivating mathematical leaders.
At the same time, it also brings together the country's expectations for a new generation of talents and Mr. Yau Chengtong's ideal of "cultivating basic scientific talents for the country and changing China's science and technology from the root".
In Qiuzhen College, the "good seedlings" selected from all levels of the country will accept the first 8-year mathematics and applied mathematics professional training method in China.
In the 8 years of 3 years of mathematical foundation + 2 years of scientific research training + 3 years of doctoral research, many master-level scholars will teach them, and Mr. Yau Chengtong is the dean and personally participates in the design of the college's training program.
In the next 10 years, a group of leading talents at the forefront of mathematics in china will go out from here to drive the development of basic disciplines such as mathematics in China and even the world.
In addition to the efforts of scholars and colleges, the cultivation of talents is also inseparable from the help of domestic enterprises.
In fact, in recent years, there have been numerous cases of companies donating to universities for educational development.
- Jingdong: Founder Liu Qiangdong once donated 300 million yuan to his alma mater, Chinese Min University, to use the construction and research of professional disciplines such as law, journalism, the Internet, artificial intelligence, finance, and athletics
- Alibaba: Jack Ma also donated 100 million yuan to his alma mater, Hangzhou Normal University, to set up an education fund
- Xiaomi: Founder Lei Jun donated 10 million yuan to Wuhan University to support the cultivation of relevant professional talents
Recently, Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group, also initiated a donation to The Qiuzhen College of Tsinghua University in his own name.
The funds donated by this individual will be used to hire well-known mathematical masters and chair professors to teach at Qiuzhen College, as well as to support the learning and exchange of students and professors of Qiuzhen College, so as to help the national basic scientific research innovation and cultivate more world-class mathematical talents.
At the same time, Lenovo also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tsinghua University to cooperate in scientific and technological innovation, talent exchange, financial support and other aspects:
- Scientific and technological innovation: Set up three special projects for the deep integration of industry, education and research of "integrated circuits", "intelligent manufacturing" and "computer architecture", promote basic research and cross-innovation and development, and enhance independent innovation capabilities and core competitiveness.
- Talent exchange: Lenovo will actively support Tsinghua University's scientific research industry practice and talent employment, so that Tsinghua University's outstanding talents can be more promising in the future.
- Financial support: In addition to Yang Yuanqing's personal donation, Lenovo also launched a donation to Tsinghua University to support the cultivation of talents at Tsinghua University. Including the establishment of the "Friends of Tsinghua - Lenovo Self-Improvement Award" to support Tsinghua University's "Self-Improvement Program".
Lenovo's wave of operations is actually not surprising. In fact, in recent years, Lenovo has been particularly concerned in the field of education.
Moreover, their focus is often not only the transformation of advanced scientific and technological projects or scientific research results, but also the development of China's local education and the high-quality training of local talents.
For example, last year, at the 125th anniversary of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Yang Yuanqing donated 100 million yuan to the first-class green water-cooled high-performance computing center of the national university.
In this way, the powerful "computing power" brought by high-performance computing can be introduced into the teaching of domestic universities.
Thus, Chinese teachers and students can obtain the necessary local technical support when they need massive data processing in energy, climate, physics, life sciences, etc., and no longer have to look at foreign scientific research resources.
These operations can be said to cure both the symptoms and the root causes, and improve the quality and environment of China's higher education from the root causes.
You must know that education, talent, and innovation are the cornerstones of national development, and exerting efforts on this really belongs to the righteous deeds of the great people of the country.
It is gratifying that there are many enterprises that provide assistance for Chinese education, and there are thousands of people with lofty ideals who are dedicated to cultivating Chinese education.
It is believed that in the future, with the joint efforts of these universities and enterprises, more top mathematicians trained in China will emerge, and there will be more Fields Medal winners from China.
If the youth is strong, then the country is strong, and the Chinese students are strong, and the future is full of hope.
When emerging talents continue to emerge, they will also promote the development of Chinese mathematics in the future, and even lead the global mathematical innovation.