A fashion major from a vocational high school in rural China has amazed the nation by outshining elite students in a global math contest \u2013 but the teenager\u2019s underdog story has now been mired by controversy. <\/p>\n
Jiang Ping, born in a poor village in eastern China\u2019s Jiangsu province, ranked 12th out of 802 shortlisted competitors \u2013 mostly from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Oxford, and MIT \u2013 in first-round results released on June 13 by DAMO Academy, the organizer of the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition. <\/p>\n
Launched in 2018 by Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, the free online contest is open to math enthusiasts worldwide, though Chinese math majors typically dominate the top places. This year\u2019s top 85 finishers will win prizes from $2,000 to $30,000. <\/p>\n
Jiang\u2019s high placement \u2013 in the first of the contest\u2019s two rounds \u2013 was a remarkable achievement for a student from one of the country\u2019s vocational schools, which suffer deep-seated social prejudices and whose graduates occupy the lowest rungs of China\u2019s educational hierarchy. <\/p>\n
Her success initially garnered nationwide acclaim, with multiple Chinese state media outlets jumping on the story and a deluge of online commentary buoyed by seeing a vocational student do so well in an international math competition. <\/p>\n
But doubts about the 17-year-old\u2019s math skills have gained momentum online since the end of last month, ahead of the release next month of results from the much more challenging second round. The organizing committee has yet to address them. <\/p>\n
Jiang\u2019s gift for math came to the fore in junior high, where her scores far outstripped those of her peers, state-run news agency Xinhua reported. She was later trained by math teacher Wang Runqiu at Lianshu Secondary Vocational School, where she studies fashion design. <\/p>\n
Wang, a three-time finalist in the contest, helped Jiang to teach herself advanced math over the past two years, according to Xinhua. <\/p>\n
Since Jiang\u2019s top-20 finish in the first round was announced, a related hashtag topped searches on X-like platform Weibo, amassing more than 650 million views so far. In her hometown, her image beamed from television screens at local malls. <\/p>\n
Jiang finished the final round on June 22, and the results will be released in August. <\/p>\n
However, just a day after the final, Richard Xu from Harvard Business School, who placed 190th in the first round, announced on China\u2019s Quora-type site Zhihu that he, along with 38 other contestants, had filed a joint letter to the organizing committee asking for an independent investigation into Jiang and Wang\u2019s answer sheets from the qualifying round. <\/p>\n
The letter cites \u201cevidence\u201d of alleged fraud, including a theory of \u201ccollaborative cheating\u201d headed by Wang, who came 125th. <\/p>\n
Four days before the final round, Yin Wotao, a member of the organizing committee, had defended Jiang in a soon-deleted response to a skeptic on X. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome math amateurs have indeed placed well in the qualifying rounds in past years,\u201d given the moderate difficulty and generous 48-hour time limit, Yin argued. <\/p>\n
Blocked from accessing Yin\u2019s short-lived comments by Chinese internet restrictions, users posted on the Lianshui county government\u2019s website, demanding an official investigation into Jiang and Wang. <\/p>\n
On June 27, the local government confirmed what until that point had been an online rumor that Jiang scored only 83 out of 150 in a school math exam held after the qualifying round. The next day, it provided a formulaic response to further related queries, saying \u201cthe investigation is underway.\u201d <\/p>\n
Soon after, all the posts relating to Jiang were taken down and there\u2019s been no update since. <\/p>\n
Among the cacophony of commentary, some suspect the harsh public scrutiny of Jiang is rooted in social prejudice against vocational students. <\/p>\n
These students make up the bottom 40% in China\u2019s senior high school entrance exam, or \u201czhongkao.\u201d They do not qualify to enter regular high schools, where students cram for \u201cgaokao,\u201d China\u2019s notoriously daunting college entrance exam. <\/p>\n
In a society where poor academic performance is often equated with moral failings, \u201clazy bones,\u201d \u201csmall-timers,\u201d and \u201cdelinquents\u201d have become bywords for the cohort who perform poorly on the zhongkao at 15 and are generally resigned to toil in factories for the rest of their lives. <\/p>\n
This represents a stark reversal from the 1980s and 90s when vocational schooling was respected as a sought-after path to \u201ciron rice bowls,\u201d a popular term for secure jobs, amid the country\u2019s urgent need for technical workers. However, the boom soon died down as higher education expanded in 1999. <\/p>\n
As China races to meet its ambitious \u201cMade in China 2025\u201d goal to become \u201ca world manufacturing power,\u201d Beijing has been strengthening vocational education in recent years. But structural discrimination in China\u2019s schools, universities and workplaces means society still favors academic degrees over trades. <\/p>\n
In an interview with The Beijing News, a Communist Party-owned newspaper, Jiang said she wanted to go college and that her dream school was Zhejiang University, a top academy in the e-commerce hub Hangzhou. But that could still be difficult despite her apparent maths proficiency. <\/p>\n
Jiang\u2019s mentor Wang told the state-run Xinhua Daily that due to restrictions on major choices for future vocational education, she can only apply to three colleges in Jiangsu province, with her best option being a second-tier public university. <\/p>\n
\u201cChina selects and categorizes talents way too early and too rigidly. This has greatly limited individuals\u2019 future options and paths,\u201d said Zhao, citing Germany and Finland as better examples of dual-track schooling with greater flexibility for students to shift between vocational and academic tracks. <\/p>\n
Beijing\u2019s attempt to emulate those European nations by encouraging resource exchanges between the two types of schools over the past decade has met a lukewarm response from high schools busy coaching students to score higher in the \u201cgaokao\u201d university entrance exam. <\/p>\n
According to Zhao, Jiang is already \u201ca lucky rarity if she\u2019s truly gifted in math.\u201d But he warned she may become a \u201cdisappeared Einstein\u201d \u2013 one of the many buried talents in China\u2019s education system. <\/p>\n
The jury is still out, with second-round results due next month. <\/p>\n
Jiang considers math her \u201cPlan B,\u201d prioritizing fashion design for future study, according to The Beijing News. <\/p>\n
Zhao said working in a factory is a \u201creasonable choice\u201d for the 17-year-old village girl, who as a vocational student has limited options for higher education. <\/p>\n
\u201cAfter all, she has a mouth to feed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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