So let me share with that's former U.

S.

Presidential candidate, Andrew Young.

And he's riffing off a stereotype that's long been attached to Chinese people that they're all good at math.

So how did Chinese people even get this reputation?

And is it even true?

This is why Chinese A Siri's Where were the banking common stereotypes about Chinese people?

One Google search at a time, mhm.

To test this hypothesis, we organize a method.

Okay, so remember the rules.

I will say a question first and you guys try to solve it as fast as you can.

And when you think that you have the right answer could be impressed.

A belt o k g r e a c e basically looked at yours.

And just at the fellas 80 eyes, it all that's wrong.

It's your ass is wrong.

90.

Nice day.

What cold.

20 night?

Yes.

Got it, bro.

I just wrote it down.

How did you get it already?

Here?

Yeah.

Three out of five e.

Some the left hand feels good to visit six and nine.

It's not right either.

it doesn't have is amazing.

Well skipped.

Probably three with $50 to e.

Need a calculator, bro.

Jesus Christ, like math is terrible.

16 and nine.

No swearing do way.

Oh, no.

Read this nine.

Louis 16.

1 of the $9.16 dollars.

What do these guys think of the stereotype?

I don't think the stereotype is They're good at math.

I think it's since they're very young age.

They've been trained to just keep memorizing like the Times table doing.

Come on.

So the naturally better at math?

Well, to me, it kind of goes together with the stereotype that Asians are like, Do we be and nerdy?

Right?

Which is the other thing, which is?

The agents are like I'm cool.

Therefore they're good at math.

He is just exceptionally good.

I'm a maths and physics teacher.

Not every Chinese is good.

But for example, my lovely girlfriend here thinks that she is not very good at math and she's still way better than the average person in the UK in general.

Or my Chinese students are just the next level above the level of the non Chinese.

But is it just an impression?

Thing is more than just an impression.

I think there is evidence that they have pretty good in mathematics.

Frederick Long is a math educator and researcher.

He studies health culture, affect students learning math.

And he says one of the reasons why China does so well in math is this confusion.

Culture Professor Lyons Project is called the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.

Every four years, they give a math test to students aged 10 to 14 in over 60 countries and regions.

Consistently in the top five are Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

And mainland China isn't on this list because they didn't participate in the study.

So the only things that in common other than you know they're located in East Asia is that they share the confusion culture.

It's a culture that prizes hard work above all else.

In this old confusion culture, there's distress on education, and this approach to education is very different from approaches in the West.

So in London, when I interviewed the parents and I asked them all your child is not doing very well, it's not, it's why do you think it's the case?

He said.

Oh, gas he's not very good in mathematics.

You know, I was not good enough next myself, but he's very good in basketball or music or art in Beijing.

The same question to the parents.

Oh, is lazy.

So against the big contrast Western parents, they attribute more the success and failure off their child, especially in that man to innate invoking.

But in the Chinese culture, now off course, the talents off Children, especially mathematics, they different.

But even if you're not so good in mathematics, if you put in enough effort, you can do it.

There's a problem in Chinese Xun Chen, Xiao Qian and few jaw practice makes perfect and the legends chaos, lack of talent.

I don't know where they have heard off.

I m o the International Mathematics Olympia country send the best off their best to join this competition.

And since they first participated in 1985 China has achieved the highest team's goal 20 times, more than any other country.

We wanted to meet some of these math prodigies, so we found some in Hong Kong.

So, uh, it's about yourself.

So what is 35% to suggesting, yeah, you or 550 e.

You got him out on a hot dog a lot.

Uh, hi, I'm sure.

Hey, and I'm a form three student at Simple School Educational College.

So what is the International Math Olympiad?

It's a serious are very, very hard problems which require very minimal knowledge, so most of the problems can be solved with pre university level mathematics.

But, um, it's actually really hard, I think, at math competitions.

Then it's true.

It's existing, like Chinese or Asian, or students normally do perform better than other students.

Training for this competition is really intense with Hey, you got names like How you found me and find a seat and what you got.

I think about math everywhere, like on the bus store, even just walking to school.

We wanted to know it's a fun and chuck hey, feel like they were good at math because of natural talent or constant training.

You also got the other e O.

E.

To nurture his interests.

His parents started challenging him.

E one e r.

According to one study, Chinese parents tend to spend more time with your kids on meth and counting compared to American parents.

So when Chinese kids enter kindergarten, they're often ahead of their American counterparts in basic arithmetic.

Which brings us to reason number two.

Why Chinese people are good at math is an age old love for examinations.

Examination is so important, you know, establishment in the Chinese culture in ancient China.

Passing exams What's one way to move up?

The social ladder and Lana prestigious government job were the first country in the world with the national examination.

We started with a dynasty.

The exams had many levels, and we're extremely difficult to pass.

They tested people on classic confusion, tax law and politics.

I think it's the only culture in the world that through examination you can move up the ladder in this way.

So through generations way, have this very deep trust in examination to this day, exams of how people get into universities and lend government jobs in China, which is why parents pay for cram schools.

One study found that more than 90% of parents in China pay for cram schools, making it a $383 billion industry In 2019 we had dinner with the family friend over the weekend, and this kid is nine years old.

His his mom is clearly a Tiger mom.

He has violin lessons, He has piano lessons, He has a math tutor, and he's up till two every night working on homework.

It doesn't mean that they're good at math because they're Chinese, right?

So I think it's they're good at math because they have very motivated parents that push them into all these different classes and tutoring.

And believe it or not, some studies say it's easier to learn math and Chinese.

Which brings us to reason Number three.

Language, as we all know, is a very important component of culture, and that's the language.

Make a difference in terms of learning.

Mathematics research has shown that some languages are better for learning math.

There's some very trivial things, like the number system.

Take the number 11 for example, in English.

We have a unique word for it, but in Chinese is spoken as 10 and one is the same in Arabic, Japanese, Korean and Turkish stitches.

System is very, very simple in Chinese, so making at least arithmetic very easy to learn.

The other thing is about the spoken language, you know, Chinese is models.

Olympic right, one word, one son.

And then that makes committing to memory easier.

We don't call the table.

We call the song right nine factors song.

Chinese also has tones, which means people remember things by sound.

But once you have learned, it's just like a song.

Now again, just like old times, Civil is very low level mathematics.

No, it's very important when you try to do complicated mathematics if it eases your memory low.

And simply learning the language can train one's memory, which is our final reason why Chinese people are good at math.

Chinese language is very difficult to learn is what we call a local graphic language.

Each work is located in an imaginary square, and each character contains many strokes that go in different directions.

When kids learn Chinese, they count each stroke while writing a character.

Long believes this helps wire the brain in ways that are useful later for learning math and geometry, the different languages effects.

You know how easy it is to memorize things, expression numbers.

But it's also that the different language sort of code if I your brains in different ways.

Chinese students often solve math problems using memory skills rather than tackling them step by step.

To get good mental arithmetic, you need to memorize about 60 things and memories about 50 times tables and then a few of these number bonds, like basic sums of digits.

And if you have them quickly, then you can do it.

E Think, probably if you used to memorizing things.

It's not so much a problem.

Memory is the basic ingredient.

May learn that Matic this new studies in neuroscience.

They're telling us that, actually, because off our experience off our language, our brains are programmed differently when we do mathematics.

And that may explain why this Chinese students are so good in mathematic, yeah.