Are all Chinese people good at math?

中国人都很擅长数学吗？

以下是Quora网友的评价：

XK Yang

Of course not. Although we have detailed and completed education on math and the content is more difficult than most contraries in primary and middle school. Most don't like it and learn the correct mathematics thinking, except the man who will work at research, education, engineering and etc. This is a universal phenomenon not only about math and not only in China.

当然不是啦。虽然我们有详细和完整的数学教育，内容比大多数国家的小学和中学都难。除了那些将在研究、教育、工程等领域工作的人，大多数人并不喜欢数学，不喜欢学习正确的数学思维。这是一个普遍的现象，不仅仅是数学，也不仅仅是在中国。

Ying iao

Are all American people good at being ignorant?

I’m Chinese, and I almost failed math in high school.

So go figure.

所有美国人都这么无知吗？

我是中国人，高中时我差点数学不及格。

所以你说呢。

George Limlosuy

I think in general Chinese anywhere in the world are good in Maths because of the following reasons:

我认为总的来说，世界各地的中国人都比较擅长数学，原因如下：

Chinese parents put a lot of efforts in teaching their children maths. They will invest time and money to make sure their kids excel in maths by sending them to tuition schools during weekends.

Chinese generally associate being good in Maths as being highly intelligent. This gives encouragement and motivation for Chinese students to do well in maths.

Chinese primary or secondary schools usually have higher standards in maths compared to those in western countries. Just look at the results of international maths and science assessment tests like TIMMS and PISA where countries like China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau garner most of the top places.

中国父母花了很多精力教孩子学数学，他们舍得花时间花钱，周末送孩子去补习班，力求能考出高分。

中国人普遍认为数学好就是智商高。这给了中国学生在数学上取得好成绩的鼓励和动力。

和西方国家相比，中国中小学对数学水平的要求通常更高。看看TIMMS和PISA等国际数学和科学评估测试的结果就知道了，中国大陆、新加坡、中国香港和中国澳门等地几乎包揽了这些赛事的前几名。

Some western countries like ENGLAND even adopt the Chinese maths curriculum and teaching methods into their school system. In western countries like USA, Australia, NZ, most of the top students are Chinese and they are usually in the top of their maths classes.

有些西方国家，如英国，甚至也开始采用中国的数学课程体系和教学方法。在美国、澳大利亚、新西兰等西方国家，大多数优秀的学生都是华人，他们的数学成绩通常都名列前茅。

Jack Ding

Yes(only from my point of view)

People nearly don’t use calculators except calculating project costs

I’m now learning in an international program, and I found that the pre-ap calculus contains mostly the knowledge every student should’ve held on to when they are 13years old(Second grade of junior high school）

是的(单从我个人角度来看)。

除了计算项目成本外，人们几乎都用不到计算器。

我现在参与了一个国际项目的学习，我发现大部分每个学生在13岁时(初中二年级)可能就掌握了微积分的知识了。

Patrick Tai

Are all Chinese people good at math?

No, some Chinese are good at math, others not so much. Some Chinese are good at history, some at writing, etc., like all other nationalities.

But Kevin D. Aslan’s comment has much merits, I believe.

I am a Chinese born in Hong Kong. I was raised learning the multiplication table as a song (in Chinese). I measured using the British system (feet, inches) but money is counted in dollars and cents (decimal); so I know the contrast between the two systems. Here is what I think:

中国人都擅长数学吗？

不，有些中国人擅长数学，也有些中国人不太擅长。有些中国人擅长历史，有些中国人擅长写作等，所有民族都是一样的。

但我觉得Kevin D. Aslan的评论说得也挺对的。

我是一个在香港出生的中国人。我从小就把九九乘法表当成歌来学。我用英制的英尺、英寸单位来测量长度，用美元和美分来算钱(十进制)；所以我知道这两种系统之间的对比。以下是我的想法：

As Aslan’s article said, Chinese has some advantage in learning math (arithmetic)

The numbers (whole numbers) in the Chinese language is close to the decimal system. 1234 is written as 一千二百三十四. The characters can be literally translated as “one thousand two hundred three ten four”. One can see the “place-value” concept right from the Chinese characters. One can imagine the exercise of adding 4321 as putting 四千三百二十一 (4321) right below the above Chinese number and adding.

正如Aslan的文章所说，中国人在学习数学(算术)方面是有一些优势的。

中文中的数字（整数）接近于十进制。1234的写法是一千二百三十四。这些字可以直译为“一千二百三十四”。从汉字中就可以看出“位值”的概念。可以将4321想象为将四千三百二十一(4321)放在上面的中文数字下面，然后进行相加。

This does not make the arithmetic exercise much easier, mistakes can be made just as in any other language; BUT the CONCEPT of place-value alignment comes more NATURAL to those being brought up in the Chinese language.

It is a small advantage … but at the age of 4, a small step can be a huge one.

虽然这样也不会让算术练习变得容易，就和任何其他语言一样，也会犯错误；但对于说着汉语长大的人来说，“位值对齐”的概念更自然。

这是一个小优势，但是对于4岁的孩子来说，一小步可能就是一大步。

Jimmy Gomez

"Good" and "bad" are relative.

Whether Chinese people are good at mathematics depends on who they are compared with.

If compared with Americans, because of the huge difference in basic education between the two countries, it can be said that "yes", the Chinese are really good at mathematics.

In China, even illiterate people could figure out 56 + 79=? in their mind in seconds. For the American public, without a calculator, this is almost impossible. Most Chinese do not understand this.

“好不好”只是相对而言的。

中国人擅不擅长数学，就取决于和谁比较了。

如果是和美国人比，因为两国在基础教育上的巨大差异，可以说“是的”，中国人真的很擅长数学。

在中国，即便是文盲也能算出56 加 79等于多少，他们的脑海里就会瞬间浮现出答案。对于美国人来说，如果没有计算器，这几乎是不可能的任务。大多数中国人都不理解这一点。

Shing Lau

No, many of them really suck at math

The reason that the Chinese seem great at math is that The expectations are different, SAT math in the USA is like 7th grade math in China

And yes, the Chinese language for numbers can lend an advantage for simple math

不，很多中国人数学也很差。

中国人擅长数学的原因是大家对数学的期望不同，美国SAT的数学难度就只有中国七年级的水平。

是的，中文的数字语言可以为简单的数学运算提供优势。

Hiroyuki Kitagawa

Actually not. We can’t do calculation faster using 一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十 that is also Japanese numbers. So there is none advantage using Chinese letters (Kanji) on calculus. The Arabs were fantastic creating numbers that we use today and the Greeks were fantastic creating the base of mathematics used today. I also put a picture comparing Chinese and Japanese Abacus. Japanese Abacus is faster since it has two registers less. That opens the possibility for mental calculations. In the other hand Chinese abacus are much older and developed probably at 500BC while Japanese was made in 1600AD.

The best countries with people who are smart on math are: Korea, Japan and Finland. It is interesting that Koreans are now using Japanese soroban more than in Japan.

实际上并非如此。我们并不能用一，二，三，四，五，六，七，八，九算得更快，日文中也一样用这些数字。因此，在微积分中汉字并没有任何优势。阿拉伯人创造了我们今天使用的阿拉伯数字，希腊人开创了现代数学的基础。我上传了一张中国算盘和日本算盘的对比图片。日本算盘速度更快，因为它少了两个寄存器，为心理计算提供了可能。另一方面，中国算盘要古老得多，大约在公元前500年就开始出现了，日本算盘则是在公元1600年才出现的。

数学人才最优秀的国家是韩国、日本和芬兰。有趣的是，韩国人现在使用日本算盘比日本人更多。

Zikang Xue

Well, as a students which from China. I think Chinese people are good at in math compute. But it not mean they are good at in Real Math.

嗯，作为一个来自中国的学生。我认为中国人擅长数学和计算，但这并不意味着他们擅长真正的数学。

Ken

to be honest, if western people practice a lot, they will also be good at it. This doesn’t need sentific evidence to support, because those Chinese who don’t practice a lot are also not good at math!

老实说，如果西方人多加练习，他们也会做得很好的。这并不需要科学的证据来支持，因为那些不经常练习的中国人也不擅长数学！

Haoran Li

No.

For example, I’m not good at math (although I am a Manchurian, and some Southern Chinese racists may argue that Manchurians are too poor, too barbaric, too dirty, too disgusting, too old fashioned, too co unist, too “Russianized”, too tolerant on cultures, and too evil to be Chinese)

I look for help from Black classmates on math questions sometimes.

不。

例如，我不擅长数学(尽管我是满洲人，南方的中国人可能会认为满洲人太穷、太野蛮、太肮脏、太恶心、太过时、太“俄罗斯化”、对文化太宽容、太邪恶)。

我有时也会向黑人同学请教数学问题。

Leon Ha

Ok, so, now we need to know what you are saying by “good”, I am from china, I came to US when I was 5th grade, in that school, I was the best at math, and the teacher said that I had the skills of a 9th grader. so if you say “good” yes, they are good, but they are not good if they didn’t learn, so it doesn’t really make sense.

好的，现在我们得分析一下你说的“好”是什么意思。我来自中国，5年级的时候来到美国，我在新学校是数学第一名，老师说我的水平和9年级的学生差不多。所以如果你说的“数学很好”，那么没错，他们数学是很好，但如果他们没有好好学，他们也不可能学得好，所以这么说没有什么道理。

Also, there are people that are not good at math, like the poor people, ome of them didn’t even have the chance to go to school, so, if you say “all” then the answer is no, not every one in china is good, of course, even if you say like the best school in the world, there is still some of the people that are not that good, not every one can get the best grade, yes, most of the Chinese are really good at math, but first, not everyone, second, there are better people that can do better.

也有一些中国人不擅长数学，比如穷人家的孩子，可能连上学的机会都没有，所以,如果你说“所有中国人数学都很好”，那么答案是否定的，不是所有中国人都擅长数学，当然，即便是世界上最好的学校，也会有学得一般的人，不是每个人都能考出最好的成绩。是的，大多数的中国人都很擅长数学，但首先必须说明，并非所有的人都擅长；第二，还有比中国人更厉害的人，更擅长数学。

Aria Chu

no.

emmm….. actually i’m not good at maths. it is my shortcoming.

i prefer CHINESE or history to MATH. also,there’re lots of students in China disliking it.

the people which good at math are the smartest students in CHINA.

even if so many guys distaste math,BUT our daily count is very easy.

the9*9multiplication（九九乘法口訣） helps us!

thanks to the ancient Chinese mathematicians.

不。

emmm……实际上我就不擅长数学，数学就是我的短板。

比起数学，我更喜欢语文和历史，在中国也有很多学生不喜欢这个学科。

擅长数学的人在中国都是最聪明的学生。

虽然有很多人讨厌数学，但我们觉得日常计算很简单。

九九乘法口诀对我们帮助太大了！

我们要感谢中国古代的数学家。

Shuotong ing

I am a Chinese and I am studying in a British high school for Alevel qualifications. Many people suggest that Chinese people, especially male, are good at maths. Then I have to say I am a faked Chinese male…My maths grade is always at the bottom level, many other students get A or A*, but me, even though I did plenty of exercise papers, when questions get slightly more difficult, then my grade goes to D or even worse…

However, I am on the top of economics subject And I also get straight A for geography, business and I can also speak two foreign languages.

So it really depends on people..

我是中国人，我在一所英国高中学习A-level课程。许多人认为中国人，尤其是男性，都很擅长数学。那么我得说我是个假的中国男生了，我的数学成绩总是垫底，很多同学都能考到A或者A*，但是我，尽管我也做了很多习题，但只要题目稍微难一点，我的成绩就只有D甚至更差……

不过我在经济学科目上名列前茅，地理、商科也都是A，而且我还会说两门外语。

所以这真的因人而异。

AoBo Chen

The answer will be No.

Not all Chinese people are good at math. Most of them just have a good command of calculation, for the exsting of "Multiple Table ". Consequently, most of them can make calculation quickly.

However, many Chinese students don't perform well in their mathematical studies. Many of them feel difficult to learn Calculus (in China they call it " Advanced Mathematics"). In some universities,even the "985/211" (the Ivy League in China ),many student will fail in the exam.

Besides, Chinese are so good at calculating that they have difficulty in learning abstract mathematics.

So, just calculation, not all field of mathematics.

答案是否定的。

不是所有的中国人都擅长数学。他们大多只是比较擅长计算，大多数人都可以快速计算。

但许多中国学生在数学学习上表现不佳。他们中有很多人觉得微积分很难学(在中国称之为“高等数学”)。有些大学甚至是“985/211”大学(中国的常春藤盟校)，许多学生也会不及格。

此外，中国人擅长的是计算，他们在学习抽象数学方面有困难。

所以，中国人擅长的只是计算而已，并非所有的数学领域。