By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-30 22:01:13 | Updated at 2025-04-01 18:03:37
1 day ago
At 33, he was the first Chinese winner of the Fields Medal – one of the top honours in mathematics. Today, after decades in the US, Shing-Tung Yau is chair of Tsinghua University’s Qiuzhen College, which is fast-tracking talented young students through a programme of his own design.
Yau, who was born in the southern province of Guangdong, was educated in Hong Kong and the US. Now aged 75, he left his position as Harvard University’s William Caspar Graustein professor of mathematics in 2022, to return to China in the full-time teaching role.
Here, he shares his views on the dynamics and prospects for China’s mathematical prowess amid the intensifying rivalry between Beijing and Washington. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here.
In recent years, many Chinese mathematicians have solved major problems and come into public view. How would you assess China’s current mathematical strength? And how does it compare with the US and Europe?
In China, the situation is improving rapidly. If we consider mainland China and Hong Kong, it is still far behind America.
However, it’s not a fair comparison because the US benefits significantly from foreign talent. Harvard, for example, has people from China, Germany, and many other countries, and its leadership in mathematics is largely built on immigrants.
China also has immigrants, but nowhere near the level of the US, which has been actively recruiting global talent for almost two centuries. However, this trend is changing, as the US has become less welcoming to Chinese scientists. As a result, many Chinese researchers have returned to China, significantly contributing to the development of mathematics.
