The rise and fall of China’s viral maths ‘prodigy’

The annual mathematics contest is open to contestants from institutions worldwide and hosted by Damo Academy, Alibaba’s research institute.

This year, Jiang, a student at Jiangsu Lianshui Secondary Vocational School, outperformed other finalists from some of the world’s most prestigious institutions — including Peking University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Oxford.

She had chosen to study at the vocational school both because she was interested in fashion design, and because her sister and friends were there, said local media outlets.

Jiang’s results and unconventional educational background soon grabbed nationwide attention. Her story was featured in a video produced by Damo Academy and she was interviewed by news outlets across the country.

“Learning maths is bumpy, but every time I solve the problems I feel quite happy,” she told the state-run People’s Daily. “No matter what the future holds, I will keep learning.”

Jiang’s teacher, Wang Runqiu, was also thrust into the spotlight, hailed as an educator who noticed and encouraged her passion for maths. Speaking to the media, he described her as an attentive student who had learnt advanced mathematics herself.

“I have encountered many setbacks in the process of learning maths,” he said. “So, I want to do everything I can to help my students and let them know that there are other possibilities in the future.”

But along with an outpouring of praise for Jiang and her teacher, the student’s story also sparked a discussion about whether China’s education system did enough to support gifted students in less academic pathways – especially those who may not have received similar recognition by their teachers.

China’s education system focuses much of its resources on those taking the “Gaokao” – the notoriously difficult exam that students need to take in order to get into university. Those in vocational schools had long faced restrictions in taking the gaokao and enrolling in regular universities, until an education reform in 2022 offered vocational school students an alternative university entrance exam.

An earlier op-ed in state-news media outlet Xinhua said that Jiang’s results “hint[ed] at an awkward truth: even youths as talented as her may be easily buried without good education credentials”.