Some Aspects of the Popularization of Mathematics in China

Summary

Chinese mathematics has its own age-old tradition. Western mathematics was taught in schools only after the 1910's. Now there are around two million mathematics teachers and mathematicians in China, who are also in a way taking the responsibility for popularizing mathematics. It is probably the largest group of mathematics teachers and mathematicians in any single country in the world.

PUBLIC HONOURS

Some Chinese mathematicians by winning public honours have helped to make mathematics more popular in China. The following are two examples.

Hua Loo-Keng (1910–1985) is a household name in China. Colleagues in the mathematics community know the name through Hua's works on number theory. However most of the people in China heard of him because of his relentless effort in popularizing mathematics. Starting from the mid 60's, and apart from continuing his theoretical research, he was actively involved in the popularization of some operational research methods to the general public in China. He and his team visited thousands of factories and farms and met with millions of people over a period of ten to twenty years. As a result, “the optimization method” became a common word in China. Professor Hua reported on some of his experiences in popularizing mathematics in China at ICME 4 in Berkeley, 1980.