The myth of the Asian math genius

I have no clue what it’s like in the UK. But I feel there is some sort of anti-intellectual culture among American adults. When people say that their math is very poor it often sounds like they are actually proud of it. And it is true that the majority of Americans are not great in calculating simple sums.

Such a mentality naturally has an impact on children. One of my American colleagues told me that his son was worried about being popular, and therefore would occasionally deliberately perform less well in math.

Meanwhile, Chinese families don’t have such concerns. Moreover, because of cultural differences many Chinese families who live in the United States continue to spur on their children to get good scores and ignore this American “hidden rule.”

My son does not receive any particular training in math, but to our surprise he was awarded first prize in our city’s math competition recently. We couldn’t care less about him being “cool” like the American children. And my son even jokingly announced that he is most pleased to be the “Asian math nerd.”