Why do Chinese Children become math nerds?

When Asian-American Jeremy Lin emerged from nowhere to the center stage of American athletics, New York city comptroller John Liu  commented: “See, we're not just math nerds!" Where did this “math nerd” label come from?

First of all, it seems to be a positive prejudice.    Chinese students (actually Asian students in general) usually benefit from positive stereotypes that they are good at math.  If your parents, teachers, and classmates keep saying that you are supposed to be good at math, sometimes you will start to believe it.   In America,  I don’t see a corresponding math pride among either younger students or adults.  On the contrary, there might even be an element of anti-intellectualism when it comes to math.   Many intellectuals seem to take pride in saying how bad their math is, as if saying so would influence others to believe they are good in other areas.    While attending a conference in 2007,  I was shocked to hear from a keynote speaker Dr. Steven D. Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics, talking how horrible his math was.   I like the self-degrading humor , but it also reveals a tongue-in-cheek attitude towards poor math performance in the American culture.   In China, however, you hear doggerels such as: “Master of math, physics and chemistry, will survive without anxiety.”

Parental support was also reported to have helped Chinese children.  For all I know, Chinese parents are deeply involved, almost to a fault, in children’s math education, though many parents do not become well involved in many other areas.   Many immigrants felt a disadvantage in language and communication, and refrain from helping their children for fear of spoiling their learning with their own imperfect knowledge.  Math, however, is less dependent on language skills, and parents feel more confident in helping their children with, especially in earlier years.   Ethnic communities also have weekend programs such as the Chinese schools where parents talk about math education.   Such programs add to peer pressure among parents to teach children more math.

Pedagogy in math teaching probably also makes a difference.   In most Chinese classes, math teaching is more “formal”, involving a great amount of uninterrupted teaching from the podium.   A certain amount of rote memorization, which is frowned upon and underutilized in the US classroom, may help in establishing some fundamental knowledge, which in turn assists in the next stage of learning.  While countries like China may err on the side of too much rote memorization, American schools sometimes err on the side of “process-oriented instruction” in which “mere facts, such as historical dates, names, and events, are treated with contempt” while facts can actually be “complex things which have connections and logical implications which reach beyond themselves, according to Drs. Howley and Pendarvis in their book Out of Our Minds.  Asian parents take it for granted for kids to memorize math formula, while it may not be something American parents and teachers emphasize as much.

Increased time on task may also have been helpful.  In the little American town where I live, I know that most Chinese parents either teach their children math or send them to a math class in students’ “spare time”, while their American classmates go to ball games, band practices or other activities that seem to be less essential for many Asian parents.     Back in China, even from elementary schools, many parents take children to “math Olympic” classes which give the winning children advantages when taking exams for their middle or high schools.

Such “head start” Chinese students have is all good, but I am afraid it may not always translate to later advantages or career choices.  Second generation Asian children is less pressed by the need to “integrate” into the American societies by finding a stable occupation and securing a permanent resident card.  These children are actually more capable of pursuing their “American dream”.    In such pursuits, more second generation Asian children move on to non-STEM majors than their parents, who used to perceive math, science and engineering majors as more capable of helping them to land a permanent job.

Another concern is that parental support in earlier years can become crutches.   Once withdrawn, students find they are not really good at or interested in math themselves, unless parents have made conscientious effort to cultivate curiosity and interest along the way while building their knowledge in earlier years.

Even positive stereotyping can backfire.    One of my friends graduated from China’s top Science and Technology University, and he complained that his daughter became very frustrated with math because he was angry every time he taught. Instead, his daughter showed great talent in reading and writing, which do not seem to be areas where immigrant children would prosper.

Compared to their first generation immigrant parents who were toughly trained in mathematics, these second-generation immigrant children do not necessarily have an innate advantage in an area.  The good news is that they do not have an innate disadvantage either in other areas.