The teachings of hua loo-keng: A challenge today?

Abstract

This article has been written to draw the attention of the international community of scientists once more to the work and life of the great Chinese mathematician Hua Loo-Keng. He led the mathematical sciences in China through a period of great political turmoil, reoriented matematical research, and above all put a great effort into the popularization of mathematics. In mass campaigns he taught hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers how to apply simple mathematical methods in their daily work. This article focuses on Hua's teaching of mathematics to the masses rather than on his theoretical work. We believe that he merits further attention for a variety of reasons. First, his life and work illustrate the interaction between science and political development. It is a two-way interaction. His work on applied mathematics was influenced very much by social and political developments in the People's Republic of China, and at the same time his work influenced the political processes. The interaction between socio-political development and science is still an important issue, although the debate on this issue seems to have faded into the background. What determines the development of science and the agenda for research? The tremendous problems faced by humanity, such as degradation of environment or development problems, may require much more conscious choices of direction in scientific activities. The life and work of Hua Loo-Keng reveal the far-reaching consequence of the choices he made, choices which were not evident and remain debatable. A second theme is this. There exists a persistent prejudice among mathematicians that only pure mathematics requires the highest level of intellectual creativity, and that application of mathematics in practice is of a lower standard, not a challenge for real scientists. Hua's work on the application of mathematics in the real world displays much creativity and intellectual power. Last but not least, we have tried to illustrate what type of applications Hua dealt with during the mass campaigns, and to discuss critically the merits of his approach. We start with a survey of Hua's life and work in the context of China's political developments. In "Some Nec36 THE MATHEMATICAL INTELL[GENCER VOL. 16, NO. 3 (D 1994 Springer-Verlag New York essary Conditions" we try to explain why Hua Loo-Keng was so successful in his mass campaigns. The following section illustrates Hua's teaching during the mass campaigns. We end with an evaluation of the lessons that can be drawn from his life and work, in both industrialized and developing countries. Here use will be made of one of the authors' experiences in Africa.