In order to participate in this year's CGMO, the Beijing team of the Women's Mathematical Olympiad is training intensively. Images courtesy of interviewees
Guo Yaoyu (right) with Teacher Tang Xiaoxu.
In addition to mathematics, Fu Jiarui is also good at piano, guitar and other instruments.
Zhou Yunxi, all-media reporter of China Women's Daily
Not long ago, the 20th Chinese Women's Mathematical Olympiad (CGMO) was successfully concluded. In this competition, Fu Jiarui, a sophomore from the Affiliated Middle School of Northeast Normal University, won the first place with a score of 168 points, which received a lot of attention. Qu Zhenhua, director of the Main Examination Committee of the Chinese Women's Mathematical Olympiad, said in reading out the list: "The Women's Olympic Committee has not seen a full score for many years, which has left a very deep impression on the entire organizing committee! ”
According to the official website of the Chinese Mathematical Society, in many mathematical Olympiads at home and abroad, there have always been more men and fewer women among the participants, and it is the fact that the gender ratio of the mathematical Olympiad participants is unbalanced, which has promoted the birth of the "Chinese Women's Mathematical Olympiad". Dating back 19 years ago, in August 2002, the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad Committee held the first Women's Mathematical Olympiad in Zhuhai, the participants were high school girls, in order to show the mathematical talents and talents of female students to set up a stage, increase female students' interest in learning mathematics, improve the mathematical learning level of female students, and promote female students in different regions to learn from each other and enhance friendship.
As the organizers wish, over the past 19 years, girls have continuously demonstrated their high-level mathematical talents through this competition, and more and more girls have participated in this competition and achieved good results as their ideal goal.
love
Combing through the outstanding players of CGMO over the years, the reporter of China Women's Daily found that these girls are on the road of climbing the peak of mathematics, and they are walking and loving.
Chen Zhuo, the first place in the 6th CGMO, won the 49th IMO gold medal in 2008 after entering the 2008 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) national training team, which is the only IMO gold medal won by Chinese girls after 1995;
Wu Qingyu, who won the second place in the country in the 16th CGMO, won the silver medal in applied mathematics and computational mathematics in the 12th Yau Chengtong University Student Mathematics Competition, becoming one of the only two girls to be finalist, and won the first place in the 2021 Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition;
Yan Binwei, the first place in the 18th CGMO, won the first place with full marks in the 35th National Olympiad Competition for Secondary School Students, and won the silver medal in the 61st IMO Competition.
Guo Yaoyu, who won the CGMO gold medal for two consecutive years in 2019 and 2020 and won the gold medal in the 2020 Chinese Mathematical Olympiad (CMO), will skip the grade into the Peking University Mathematics Elite Class in September this year, and is the only girl in the Peking University Mathematics Elite Class.
For mathematics, they all have a persistent love and ideal.
The 16-year-old Fu Jiarui showed a strong interest and special talent in the Olympic mathematics in elementary school, and achieved excellent results in many international and national mathematics competitions. Since then, she has often dreamed of "becoming a solver of unsolved mysteries."
There have also been "confused", but from the beginning of solving the first number puzzle, Fu Jiarui has opened a wonderful experience of "marveling at its beauty and happy to know its mysteries".
Although he is not old and has not grown up deeply, Fu Jiarui has already tasted several gardens. "I've always thought of mathematics as the most elegant crystallization of logic," she says. One of the reasons for liking mathematics is that it fully demonstrates the beauty of reason, human reason is not affected by gender, and the development of thought has never been gendered. ”
For her achievements this time, she also modestly believes: "I have paid more time in mathematics, so I also have a slightly superior mathematical ability in return." ”
Also discovering the fun of mathematics is Guo Yaoyu, who is only 17 years old this year.
"I feel that mathematics is a very mysterious subject, objective and natural." Guo Yaoyu told reporters that with the deepening of learning, she found it "very interesting.".
From the second year of high school directly "jumped" into the Peking University mathematics elite class, her simplest wish is to "keep up", and when it comes to whether she wants to be a "mathematician" in the future, she also answers realistically, "Within ability, work hard to pursue".
Entering peking university mathematics academy or Tsinghua Qiu Chengtong mathematics elite class has also been Fu Jiarui's dream. For her, it was "the starting point for meeting young people with the same dreams and embarking on a long mathematical journey together." ”
haunt
Around the world, mathematical competitions and cutting-edge fields of mathematics have always shown a gender imbalance between men and women. In the case of CMOs, for example, there are often only a few girls in the top 100 or so gold medalists. This phenomenon was also one of the reasons why the competition was established in the first place.
In the deeper exploration and learning of mathematics, it is obviously more difficult for girls to find "like-minded" "girlfriends".
Tang Xiaoxu, a senior mathematics teacher at the Affiliated Middle School of Chinese Min University, is the coach of the Beijing team of the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad and led the team to participate in the 19th CGMO.
In Tang Xiaoxu's view, one of the problems that girls may face when engaged in digital competition is that there are fewer peers of the same gender. For example, he said: "For example, when discussing a topic, boys may communicate relatively smoothly, and discussing together can also achieve brainstorming, but girls may sometimes feel alone due to the small number of people." ”
The hard work of preparing for several competitions is well known. Tang Xiaoxu believes that if you want to maintain the enthusiasm and motivation to prepare for the battle, then the encouragement and support from your peers is indispensable.
For Tang Xiaoxu's views, Guo Yaoyu has a deep understanding. She told reporters that she began to participate in various Olympic Cup competitions since elementary school, and she was accustomed to the phenomenon of "more men and fewer women", but some experiences still made her feel a little embarrassed: when she went to summer camp, she basically could only live with teachers, and once she was forgotten by everyone during dinner.
But over time, she also feels that there are more same-sex partners in the digital arena. Especially after participating in CGMO, I found out: "There are so many mathematical masters among girls."
"There are not many girls in the same group, and it is true that they have not been able to team up like boys, although they will not feel lonely, but the hope that the girls' number competition team can grow is always the same." Fu Jiarui has also always believed that "girls are not lost in talent, perhaps untapped, or perhaps they have not found a suitable mathematical learning method", and firmly believe that "the weakness presented at this time is not a doomed fate, as long as they have love in their hearts, they are worthy of being encouraged to move forward." ”
controversy
CGMO, a special Olympiad competition for girls, aims to encourage girls to learn mathematics and participate in competitions. However, there are also some voices that believe that the establishment of a separate women's group is biased in favor of girls, and the competition topics for girls are simpler.
According to the regulations of the CGMO Organizing Committee, the top 17 students will directly enter the National Mathematics Winter Camp for Middle School Students. It is understood that according to the results of the winter camp, it will also be selected to obtain the qualification of the national training team and have the opportunity to escort Tsinghua Peking University.
In Guo Yaoyu's view, CGMO has indeed played a role in promoting girls to participate in the number competition, "I did observe that there are girls around who start to learn the Olympic numbers against CGMO, and if there is no competition, they may not participate." ”
"It is CGMO that provides the opportunity to cast the spotlight on girls, so that people can see more possibilities for girls", Fu Jiarui also believes that this competition is an encouragement to all girls who like mathematics, proving that they really have strength.
Tang Xiaoxu believes that CGMO provides an additional opportunity for girls to compete in the number, and the promotion effect is obvious. However, in general, the proportion of male students in the field of mathematical competition is still more advantageous, and the imbalance in the gender ratio cannot be reversed by a competition.
"Whether from the perspective of balanced development of disciplines or social equity, it is certainly of positive significance to promote gender balance in the field of mathematics and give more encouragement and opportunities to girls." Tang Xiaoxu thinks.
Tang Xiaoxu also specifically mentioned that although the number of girls in the field of mathematics is not dominant, the level of top mathematics masters among girls is comparable to that of boys.
How can this statement be expressed?
Tang Xiaoxu explained that in terms of the difficulty of the questions, compared with the National High School Mathematics League and CMO, the difference between CGMO and the National High School Mathematics League and CMO is that in the two-day exam, the first question of each day is relatively easy, and the participating students can basically solve it. However, the difficulty of the subsequent questions will increase step by step, especially the difficulty of the last question in the two-day exam, and even exceed the last question of the high school math league.
After the end of CGMO this year, Tang Xiaoxu shared the problem with other students in the school who engaged in mathematics competition as usual, "Mathematics is not divided into men and women, and the quality of many questions is still very high." Tang Xiaoxu told reporters, "If you can get full points, it means that the student has indeed reached the level of the top 60 in the country and can enter the national training team, so it cannot be said that the gold medal of CGMO is 'low in gold content'." ”
As a competition coach, Tang Xiaoxu has led the team to participate in national competitions many times, and he also noticed that among the more than 70 people who were shortlisted for the first prize of the 2020 National High School Mathematics League Beijing Division, only 3 girls were girls. "It can be seen that the resistance of girls participating in the digital competition is still relatively large, and CGMO should still insist on doing it."
In the face of the gender controversy that CGMO may be involved in, as one netizen said: "If one day the gender stereotype disappears, men and women are not much different in attention and competition results, even if the historical mission of women's events is completed, it should be sooner or later to cancel the women's event." ”
Source: China Women's Daily