Mathematics and National Character in 1930s China
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F16%3A10331726" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/16:10331726 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
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DOI - Digital Object Identifier
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Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Mathematics and National Character in 1930s China
Original language description
By the mid-1930s, Chinese historians of mathematics had achieved broad recognition of the strengths and richness of mathematics in pre-modern China. They were motivated in their effort by development in history of mathematics abroad, especially in Japan. The Japanese historian Yoshio Mikami (1875-1950) understood mathematics as a particular offshoot of a holistic national culture, essentially tied to a biologically conditioned race. His Chinese counterparts, such as Li Yan (1892-1963) and Qian Baocong (1892-1974), argued more subtly about the ability of Chinese ancestors to produce, independently from foreign influences, remarkable and important mathematical results. However, this nationalistic approach did not go unchallenged. Global developments were again key catalysts. As the German mathematician Ludwig Bieberbach (1886-1982) tried to enforce racial purity in German mathematics, he was criticized by the Japanese mathematician and historian Kinnosuke Oguro, who also warned against Japanese Bieberbachs and attempts to define a racially pure Japanese mathematics. These criticisms were widely reported in China. This implicit cricitism of notions of national character and fixed racial mentality shows that even in the age of heightened nationalism, many Chinese intellectuals acknowledged the universalism of mathematics and rejected attempts to link it with some imagined national character
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
O - Miscellaneous
CEP classification
AB - History
OECD FORD branch
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Result continuities
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)
Others
Publication year
2016
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů