为什麽中国没有得菲尔兹奖

China has the largest population, most talented people, most mathematicians (I guess) among all countries. Why haven't they received any Fields award? Even Iran got one. Something is seriously wrong with how they treat math. Don't tell me it's racial discrimination.

To me math is a way of thinking, how we see the world and how we model the world. It takes curiosity and imagination, that's what Chinese math lacks of. It's not about skills (although it involves skills), don't treat it as playing piano. Whereas Chinese math is mainly about skills. There are many professional mathematicians here (I'm not one of them), if you learn math together with your kids, you will find the differences. For example, in American math, kids learn place value, ones, tens, hundreds, etc. You think it's dumb, waste of time. But if kids learned this, it is so easy to switch from system of ten to system of two (binary system).  I remember I had a hard time in China to switch to binary. Slow is fast, remember the story of turtle and rabbit?

The problems with American math education are 1)some teachers are not qualified, and 2)students do not spend enough time on it. That's where parents can help. You do not need to introduce Chinese system, just follow American system and make sure your kids get it. Of course, you need to learn and try to appreciate American system first.