18 Asia

Introduction

I have a love affair and special fascination with Asia. Australia is very close to Asia, yet has quite different background and culture. Australia's future is in the Asian and more particular Asia Pacific region and it is important that Australia and Asia share experiences and improve by learning from each other. There are many poorer parts of Asia, which I did not focus on from an AMT point of view. I saw my role as interaction with the growing middle class of Asia and building connections at that level, which had much promise. It is obvious when travelling to some parts of Asia that some countries there think big with infrastructure and development and Australia can learn a lot about urban development, fast trains, big projects generally, etc.

Central, but not exclusively so, to my developing relations in Asia, were a group of Chinese mathematicians from various countries, Qiu Zhonghu (Professor Qiu) from Beijing, Andy Liu (Edmonton), Cheung Pak-Hong (Hong Kong), Sun Wen-Hsien (Taipei) and Simon Chua (Zamboanga). These five mathematicians had much in common, wanting via philanthropic or other related means to help lift standards via enrichment rather than via orthodox classroom testing. They had various degrees of relationship with their national mathematical Olympiad organisations (Professor Qiu was in fact a leader of the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad organisation, others had no role). I had a lot in common with them, particularly the feeling that academic development is not best done via an exam-driven system, and became part of their circle.

Sometimes they variously, with good humour described themselves as the Chinese mathematical mafia, the gang of five, or whatever, because of their aims, and I was sometimes referred to as an honorary Chinese, as in effect an unofficial sixth member of the group. I always felt that I could talk about anything with them, and they were always happy to confide with me. These people were highly motivated to help students, even if it was not in the best interests of their professional careers, where pure mathematical research may have been better for them. In fact Nikolay Konstantinov and his colleagues in Russia, had similar attitudes, clearly, in Russia, and this had led to the development of the International Mathematics Tournament of Towns.

The exam-driven system is a really important point to discuss. In my own experience of teaching students in our circle in Canberra, I frequently found students who were regarded by their peers as real "brains" because they regularly got the best school exam score, but could not solve problems I set them. Vice versa, I found students who the exam system did not detect, but had real creativity and ability to react to unforeseen situations. My colleague Ron Dunkley, of Canada, would sometimes refer to the latter group as the ones who later on be the ones to make a million dollars. Whereas I did not think of it in such monetary terms, I regarded the latter as the ones who would be successful, and the school system would not necessarily detect.

A feature of both these groups, unlike some in Olympiad programs, was that instead of being completely motivated by their countries' placings at IMO, they were interested in helping any student equally, regardless of standard, and I had empathy. Even though it was good to see a higher Australian placing at an IMO, my main concerns were to spread the benefit of mathematical enrichment wider among the population as a whole. No matter what the student's apparent ability level is, I would hope my energy is equally directed, where possible.

I was invited to Beijing in 1994 to help introduce the Tournament of Towns there. My daughter Stephanie, then a Year 9 student, came with me, and in parallel the Chinese Academy also invited my Canadian colleague Andy Liu, who had worked with me in developing particular the mathematical resources in English, and he brought a student with him.

During the week there was a lot of formal and informal mathematical interchange but we were also shown all the tourist sites, and being there for a week we obviously experienced the culture.

The night of our arrival was probably the most cultural for Stephanie and me as we were taken straight from the airport to a workers' cafe for Peking Duck, which is supposed to use all parts of the duck. Everything was on view, including the head, except the feet. Andy asked where were the feet. He was told to look in the soup, and dug some implement into the soup, lifting out the feet.

Memorable aspects of this were the banquets. A banquet was a meal with many courses, and the seating arrangements around the 8, 10, 12 or 14 seat circular tables, sometimes in private rooms, were defined in very interesting ways (mathematically, with symmetries based around the host).

The chair, or host, was possibly from the Party. Andy, seen above with student Daniel, can be seen on the right side of the chair of this banquet, hosted by the Academy, while Stephanie and I are on his left, and some local mathematicians are present. Usually, the person at the `bottom' of the table, opposite the host, was someone whose duty it was to interact with management. I think around a table of 8 to 14 guests and hosts would be alternately placed, but with some flexibility, such as in this case to allow Stephanie and I to be allowed to sit together, since she was just 14 years old, and similarly with Andy's Canadian student.

Banquets were to prove a regular experience in Asia, particularly in China. Here are a couple of other examples.

This one is in Kaohsiung in 2003, after signing a contract for Taiwan participation in the AMC via Taiwan's National Kaohsiung Normal University. Second from left is Professor Leau Shan, most senior mathematician at the University and fourth from the left is their Vice Chancellor, Professor Tsai.

Here is a much later one, in Suzhou, west of Shanghai, during a 2009 visit after an AMC presentation at a school there. During these I learned not only about the seating arrangements, as referred to above, first experienced in Beijing, but also the structure of long banquet menus, and how they are notified to the guests by notices on a wall in the banquet room.

AMC in Asia

In 1994 I became Executive Director and realised it made more sense for us to be going to countries like Singapore and Brunei to have ceremonies rather than fly winners to Australia. At the time there were something like 5000 Singapore entries a year and a few in Brunei.

We were able to host a small ceremony in the Trade Theatre of the Australian High Commission building and High Commissioner Mr Ted Delofski was Guest of Honour. Before the event are local friend Willie Yong, me, Sally Bakker, who went up with me, and newly appointed Singapore Director of the AMC Teo Mui Hong, who was also Head of Mathematics at Raffles. These functions, and the entry, grew rapidly, and were held every year since.

In the same year there was a Malaysian medal and I visited the Chong Hwa Independent High School, shown above, one of the strongest schools academically in Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur, to present the medal. The school had 5200 students on a campus no more than a hectare, with each class being traditional and having 64 students in an 8 by 8 desk configuration.

In my remaining years as Executive Director the AMC grew rapidly and I was visiting countries including also Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand.

These visits would include ceremonies, meetings and often meeting important people. An example was Dato Ali Hashim, Permanent Secretary of the Education Department in Brunei, who I visited several times, here in 1996, and we also arranged to meet for lunch personally during later visits after he had retired.

Ceremonies

The main function during these various visits was to hold AMC presentation ceremonies. The nature of these ceremonies varied quite a lot. Some were in large school assemblies, some quiet ones in Principals' offices, some we held ourselves, such as in Singapore, some organised locally, such as Manila. Here is a small sample.

This is the photo after the Brunei ceremony of 2000, with the Australian High Commissioner Doug Chester also in the front row. Doug Chester was a very senior Australian Diplomat, with a mathematics degree, and presided later in 2011 as the Australian High Commissioner in Singapore at the 2011 Singapore ceremony.

Among the most touching ceremonies always was the one in Manila, and I made it there every year between 1997 and 2012, even though in one year I could not get to Singapore or Malaysia due to another commitment. The most emotional for me was my last one, in 2012, where they had a half hour special tribute to me, with several speeches, tributes from former students, including one webcast from the US and songs, which were especially suitable, if not composed. Here are some of the audience singing one of those songs.

This function, in 2007 at Ger-Jyh school, a private school in Taipei, was massive, larger than this photo can indicate, but it was in a large school assembly, with with most students in the large area in front of the stage, but also many classes lining the balconies.

This was at the Patumwan Demonstration School in Bangkok, also in a very large school assembly. This is a very high-achieving school in Thailand, providing many talented students to the strong Thailand IMO team. It teaches in English and Thai.

This was a more modest ceremony, held at a school in Taichung in 2011.

School Visits

In the course of this time I visited many schools, either informally or formally, to present medals. I believe that schools regarded visits by Westerners was good for the development of the students' outlooks, and they probably rarely happened in any school.

On arrival at a school, inevitably there would be a special welcome sign up for my benefit on arrival. This one in 1998 was when Wen Hsien and I arrived at a school in Taipei.

Here is one on arrival at a school at Suzhou in 2009. This town, to the west of Shanghai, where I was staying, I was told would seem like a little village compared with Shanghai, but it was still bigger than Sydney! And it had very modern industry.

And at many schools I would give a class, sometimes up to 3 hours, sometimes prepared, sometimes without notice. And often in Chinese schools I would work closely with Wen Hsien, who would translate and also operate mathematically, at which he was very good. Here is such a class in a school in Kaohsiung in 2003.

And here I am teaching in a class in Jakarta in 2009.

After classes or ceremonies there would be many requests for photographs or autographs. Here I am signing autographs after a 2003 class in Kaohsiung.

And here after another in Kaohsiung during 2006.

Wen Hsien Sun is a book publisher and philanthropist. He owns mathematics bookshops in both Beijing and Taipei. Here he is in his Taipei bookshop, where he also sells AMT publications in Chinese.

Contract signings

During some meetings and ceremonies contracts between AMT and local agents (always proper government agencies) were signed, sometimes with national flags present and cameras.

Here is one signing in the office of National Kaohsiung Normal University Vice Chancellor Tsai.

And here is another during the 2011 AMC Award Ceremony in Hong Kong Polytechnic University with Professor Walter Yuen.

Cultural engagement

Quite often one would engage with some cultural activity.

In 2008 I was taken to a dancing exhibition by indigenous dancers in Taiwan at Sun Moon Lake, inland in the country, and was extracted from the audience to become one of the dancers.

In the same visit in Taiwan I was taken to a mill where high quality paper was produced and traditional printing conducted and here I am with Wen Hsien on assignment.

Chiang Kai Shek statues

During the 2000s sometime I noticed that the incidence of Chiang Kai Shek statues was declining in front of schools. I asked and it was confirmed to me that the Kuomintang Party had been defeated in an election and the new government was trying to eliminate his influence (which also stood for eventual reunion with China). So the main airport had his name removed and statues in front of schools were removed.

But occasionally I would notice one which had been overlooked, such as at the above school in Taipei in 2009.

In 2012 (with the Kuomintang back in power, as most people do want eventual reunion) I asked to be taken to the place where Chiang Kai Shek had lived, and I had seen in a beautiful place on my first visit. I was taken there and we found a whole park full of these statues. Someone had found them and relocated them all together at this place. Here are some of them.

The key people

China: Qiu Zhonghu

I first met Professor Qiu in Quebec at ICME in 1992 when he chaired China's IMO organisation. An Operations Researcher at Academia Sinica, Professor Qiu had strong influence throughout the following years, not just his own organisation, but as an inspirational figure for mathematicians in other countries. He is shown above while in Australia in 1995 with Andy Liu.

Taiwan: Sun Wen Hsien

I first met Wen Hsien in 1996 at ICME in Seville. He could have pursued a sound career as a teacher, but by his own admission he could not operate in an exam-driven system. Instead he became a publisher and seller of mathematical books and poured his resources, financial and time, to the development of young students, independent of the school system and even the national Olympiad system, although the latter found his success difficult to ignore. Wen Hsien uses the AMC as only part of his program. He has students writing Tournament of Towns, takes them internationally to other events such as the International Mathematics Competition, and other events. His photograph appears several times above.

I should also note with respect to Taiwan that whereas Wen Hsien lives in Taipei, and covers the whole country, there is a very important Mathematics Professor in Kaohsiung who has a very significant influence there and internationally. He is Leau Shan, seen in one of the banquet pictures above, and he was also instrumental in the founding of the World Intercity Youth Olympiad.

Philippines: Dr Simon Chua

In the earlier days the AMC in the Philippines was run entirely by the government but in 1999 Simon approached me on the basis his organisation could make it a lot bigger. I checked with the government and they supported him. His Mathematics Trainers Guild is massive and one of the most impressive organisation in any country. I attended their 10th and 15th anniversaries and they were both gala occasions. Simon works closely with Wen Hsien on various international events.

Malaysia: Lim Chong Keang

Chong Keang is the most influential figure in mathematical enrichment in Malaysia. I first recall meeting him at the 1998 WFNMC Conference in Zhong Shan, China, in 1998. He is a former Vice Chancellor of an Institute of Technology and is on the board of several schools and other educational institutions. There was increasing informal Malaysian participation from the mid 1990s, but the photo above shows him in Kuala Lumpur with me in 2004 to first formalise Malaysian involvement.

Singapore: Teo Mui Hong and Jasmine Tey

Singapore is the biggest participant in the AMC outside Australia and is different than the other countries of its region as its schools enter directly, just like Australian schools. In 1995 though I realised there was still a need for a Singapore director and was fortunate that first Teo Mui Hong (photographed somewhat above with Sally Bakker, Willie Yong and me), head of maths at Raffles, and later Jasmine Tey, head of maths at Hwa Chong, both took on this position for lengthy periods. Both are distinguished mathematics teachers by any international measure.

Hong Kong: Cheung Pak Hong

I have known Pak Hong longer than any of these people as he was at the first WFNMC Conference at Waterloo in 1990. At that time he was a Lecturer at Hong Kong University, and his close contact with Professor Qiu helped the third WFNMC Conference in Zhong Shan 1998 succeed by being at the Western end. Most people arrived via Hong Kong before taking ferries across to Zhong Shan. He introduced the AMC to Hong Kong and was always available for advice on any matter after he handed on the baton. He became Principal of a high school and is highly respected by the Hong Kong Government, being awarded in 2002 the Bronze Bauhinia Star (BBS) and often serving on Government Advisory Committees. Above we are seen visiting Bellios High School, a girls' school, in 2005, to present an AMC medal.

Hong Kong: CK Wan

I first met CK in 2010, and we are shown together above at the time when he first became AMC Director for Hong Kong. He was a man of remarkable vision, foresight, and ways of getting things done. Specifically he arranged for Hong Kong results to have greater integrity by being held on the normal day, even though it was school holidays in Hong Kong, by setting up examination centres. And he also introduced Primary School students to the AMC in Hong Kong. And he wanted Hong Kong students to have better access to AMT's programs in Informatics and the Maths Challenge, which was all agreed by contract in 2012.

I last saw him in Hong Kong in January 2013. Sadly he was not well and he passed away in the following month.

Indonesia: Ridwan Saputra

I had been in correspondence with Ridwan Saputra for some time, but first met him on a visit to Jakarta and Bogor in 2009, where he held a national presentation. Ridwan heads an organisation recognised by the Indonesian government which specialises in mathematical enrichment in Indonesia and growing rapidly through all parts of the country.

And here is a real photo of Ridwan with his colleague JJ Herjaya on the right during the 2009 presentation in Bogor.

Students

In visits to Asia, particularly on a regular basis, I got to know a lot of students, probably more than I realised, as I would often be approached by students at IMOs and IOIs who knew me and wanted to say hello.

The most conspicuous case would be the Malaysian identical twins, How Si Wei and How Si Yu, who I knew from primary school throughout. My first photograph of them is in 2005, but the above in 2006 has Si Yu on the left and Si Wei on the right. I have a photo with them almost every year from then on and even in Brisbane in 2013 when they were both members of the Malaysian IOI team.

Their positions are reversed in this one in 2012. I would like to think that the AMC inspired them to high standards from a young age. These two won a number of medals, including Gold, in IMOs and IOIs.

Other Countries

For various reasons I did travel to a number of other countries. Some of these were to attend events such as IMOs and ICMEs, but there were two interesting ones not directly associated with the AMT but rather as an individual.

In 2002 I was invited to Lucknow, India to be a guest at the World Intercity Youth Mathematics Olympiad, essentially an international Olympiad for students up to Year 9. This involved a lot of talks, interviews, etc, often impromptu, and it was a very interesting time for me.

In both 2004 and 2005 I was invited to Iran for various reasons, basically giving keynote speeches at national conferences. In the 2004 visit I gave a keynote lecture in Isfahan on computers in schools, while in 2005 I gave a plenary lecture to the annual meeting of the Iranian Mathematical Society in Ahvaz. On the second visit I had the extra emotional experience of visiting the Shiite Shrine of Mashhad, which is described in Chapter 14 of my memoirs site.

In the 2005 visit as in 2004 I was in Isfahan, visiting the Mathematics House (as in 2004), which gets special attention in the final report of ICMI Study 16. Above I am shown teaching some problem solving at this venue. This was a very interesting night. The students worked as teams, on some tables just teams of boys and on others just teams of girls. I had never worked in a teams environment before but on each occasion the team with the first solution was one of the teams of girls, anecdotally indicating to me that girls communicate better than boys.