High School Student Majoring in Design, Not Math
Teacher Recognizes Talent and Guides to Focus on Math
A student majoring in fashion design at a vocational high school has attracted attention by advancing to the finals alongside students from prestigious universities around the world at a global mathematics competition recently held in China. Local netizens have shown great interest, calling it "the real-life version of a movie about a math genius."
On the 17th, Yonhap News, citing local media such as China News Weekly, reported that Jiang Ping (姜萍, 17), a female student attending Lianshui Secondary Vocational School in Jiangsu Province, eastern China, scored 93 points in the preliminary round of the global mathematics competition hosted by IT company Alibaba on the 13th, advancing to the finals.
The finals of this competition featured 801 participants from 17 regions worldwide, with an average age of 22. The 17-year-old girl Jiang Ping ranked 12th among them and was the only female among the top 30 finalists. The list of the top 30 finalists included students from prestigious universities such as the University of Cambridge in the UK, MIT in the US, and Peking University and Tsinghua University in China, making Jiang Ping’s name stand out even more.
Jiang Ping recognized her exceptional mathematical talent since middle school, but due to low scores on high school entrance exams, she enrolled in a vocational school instead of a general or prestigious high school. The person who immediately recognized Jiang Ping’s extraordinary mathematical ability was her teacher Wang Lunqiu. After entering the vocational school, Jiang Ping scored over 130 points on a 150-point math test, while the second-highest student scored only 50 to 60 points. Wang recommended that Jiang Ping self-study university-level math courses. Wang Lunqiu also participated in this competition but ranked 125th, showing that Jiang Ping has surpassed her mentor.
Jiang Ping’s story has become a hot topic among Chinese netizens, who call it "the real-life version of a movie about a math genius." The Global Times of China reported, "Vocational secondary schools and colleges in China often bear the stigma of being places for 'failed students,'" and added, "Over the past few days, many Chinese netizens have been shocked by Jiang Ping’s mathematical talent and have shown their support."
Yan Jun, a high school math teacher from Singapore who qualified for the finals, said, "The preliminary round had a total score of 120 points, and the cutoff score for the finals was 45 points, which is by no means easy. I studied math throughout my undergraduate and graduate studies, but even at my peak, I could never reach Jiang Ping’s 93 points. She has innate talent." Yao Yijun, a professor at the School of Mathematical Sciences at Fudan University in Shanghai, also commented, "If we look only at the quality of the answers rather than the math level, conservatively speaking, 95% of domestic math major students would not be able to produce answers at Jiang Ping’s level within the time limit."
Prestigious Chinese universities such as Tongji University and Jiangsu University have also announced their welcome for Jiang Ping’s application through their official social media accounts.
Regarding the results, Jiang Ping said, "I used to think I was not qualified to participate in such competitions," adding, "Maybe this can be an opportunity to prove myself." She stated that fashion design, her current major, is her "Plan A," and math is her "Plan B," but she hopes Plan B will also be feasible.
Meanwhile, the Alibaba Mathematics Competition, now in its sixth year, is known for having no eligibility restrictions. The competition attracts a wide range of math enthusiasts, from students to workers, civil servants, and doctors. It has become the world’s largest online math competition with 250,000 participants, and this year, for the first time, it opened participation to AI-based contestants. However, none of the 563 teams from universities and companies worldwide using AI advanced to the finals. The finals will be held from midnight to midnight on June 22, and the ultimate winner will receive a prize of approximately 4 million yuan (about 760 million won).
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