A Chinese student in rural China has amazed the nation after beating elites in a global math contest - but some are skeptical of her success . Jiang Ping, 17, a fashion major from a vocational high school in China, outshined students from prestigious institutions in the competitive math test. Ping was born in a poor village in eastern China’s Jiangsu province and ranked 12th out of 802 shortlisted competitors, mostly from schools like Harvard, Oxford, and MIT.
Taiwan on high alert as 13 Chinese fighter jets cross into territory World's largest nuclear fusion reactor is completed, but it will not operate yet First-round results from the contest were released on June 13 by DAMO Academy, which organized the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition. The free online contest was open to math enthusiasts worldwide. The top 85 finishers in this year’s contest will win prizes from $2,000 to $30,000.
Ping’s high placement in the first round was a remarkable achievement for a student from one of China’s vocational schools, which suffer from social prejudices and whose graduates are often at the bottom of the country’s educational hierarchy. Her success quickly made headlines as the news shocked the nation, but many have expressed their doubts about her doing so well in the first round. Ping, who studies fashion design at Lianshu Secondary Vocational School, became talented in math in junior high and continued her training at her current school.
In her hometown, her image was pas.