History of mathematics in the service of modernization in 20th century China

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F16%3A10331705" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/16:10331705 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://f.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/946/files/2016/11/161024-conf-historiographie-prog-avec-abstracts.pdf" target="_blank" >https://f.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/946/files/2016/11/161024-conf-historiographie-prog-avec-abstracts.pdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

History of mathematics in the service of modernization in 20th century China

Original language description

Throughout 20th century, Chinese elites strived to establish a new culture for the modern age. Radical Westernizers and cultural conservatives had different visions of this new culture, but they agreed on the central role of mathematization in modernization. History of mathematics was thus always more than just the development of a discipline. It was also a narrative of modernization and a measurement of strengths and weaknesses of Chinese traditional culture. This paper exemplifies these strategies of appropriation on Qian Baocong (1892-1974), Hua Loo-Keng (1910-1985) and Wu Wen-Tsun (1919-). Qian Baocong was one of the creators of history of Chinese mathematics. In the 1930s a 40s, he became especially interested in comparative history, underscored China's mathematical creativity and questioned whether China only prospered from cultural transmission from abroad. Hua Loo-Keng, director of the Institute of Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, used history of Chinese mathematics to promote mathematics among the Chinese youth. He wrote several brochures in the 1950s and 60s laying out important branches of mathematics as expansion of problems historically treated by Chinese mathematics. Finally, the erstwhile algebraic topologist Wu Wen-Tsun combined Qian Baocong's comparative approach with Hua's way of starting from Chinese mathematical history to develop a modern mathematical theory when designing and defending his "mechanization of mathematics" in the late 1970s and 1980s. The juxtaposition of these three stories, spanning almost six decades, highlights how modernization, in various forms and through various channels, informed the interests of Chinese professional historians of mathematics and elite mathematicians looking at their discipline in particular historical circumstances.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

AB - History

OECD FORD branch

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Project

<a href="/en/project/LK11218" target="_blank" >LK11218: Deconstruction and construction of national traditions and science in China</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2016

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů