The document summarizes the history and development of mathematical competitions and elementary mathematics studies in China. It describes how mathematical competitions began in China in 1956 and have expanded significantly since, inspiring educational and academic advances. It also outlines the growth of research in elementary mathematics among high school teachers and the establishment of organizations to support this field.

1. Mathematical Competition and studies In Elementary Mathematics Kang Wu South China Normal University 华南师范大学数学科学学院 吴康 数学竞赛与初等数学研究在中国 [email_address]

11. In 1980, the Chinese Mathematical Society formed a committee in popularizing mathematics education, this committee became the core organizer and leader for national mathematical competitions. 1980

12. In 1981, the first national mathematical competition was held. Since then, it has been held for 28 times. 1981

13. In 1985, Chinese sent two students to participate the IMO . 1985

14. In 1986,Chinese sent a team (16 people) to participat IMO the first time. This first team successfully brought back 3 gold medals,1 silver medal and 1 brozen medal, and their total points were ranked No.4. 1986

18. The second highest score is USSR, which is 193. This had shown the strong advantages of Chinese mathematical competition team in the world.

19. After that, Chinese students team participated in all the IMO competitions in the following years and obtained excellent grades. Our team were awarded many gold medals.

20. Since 1988, a mathematical coach system was initialized;this system hired the best mathematics teachers in China to train talented young students.

21. There are also many high level mathematical journals and magazi-nes published in China, such as "Mathematical Competition", "Elementary Mathematics".

22. In 1992 the committee on popular mathematics of the Chinese Mathematical Society initiliazed a " Mathematical Competition Curriculumn". 1992

23. In 1993 the Chinese mathematical competition oganizer and mathe- matican Zonghu Qiu was awarded Erdos Prize from the Mathematical Competition Association . 1993

24. In 1994,the mathematical team from HongKong parti- cipated in the IMO. 1994

25. In 1998, the mathematical team from Taiwan partici- pated the IMO. 1998

26. In 1999, a cooperation committee was formed in the Middle School attached to the South China Normal University. 1999

27. In 2001, the first West China Mathematical Olympic Competition was held. 2001

28. In 2002, the first Woman Olympic was held. The President of the Chinese Mathematical society, Member of the Chinese Academic is in charge of the Mathematical olympic Competition himself. 2002

29. In 2005, the first South East Mathematical Olympic was held. 2005

30. The mathematical competitions are popular in China since then. It was first held for high school students, then for middle school students. Now, there are competi- tions hled for elementary school students.

31. In 1987, there was first a summer math camp for college students. It was expanded to mathematical competitions for college students later.

32. There are also mathematical modelling competitions for college students. The math modeling and application competitions were also held for high school students in Shanghai (1991), Beijing (1993)

33. In 1991, the Olympic Mathematics for Grammer School was founded. This competition used to have a national level final and then was only held in different provinces. Mathematical competitions became popular in all levels.

34. This competition used to have a national level final and then was only held in different provinces. Mathematical competitions became popular in all levels.

35. In 21st centuary, the mathe-matical competitions are very popular and welcomed. It has divisities. It has different levels, from elematary school to college levels. Teaching,training, judging are specified. This situation really affects the teaching, textbooks in schools.

36. In college, especially in normal colleges, there are new courses are offered, such as "compitition maths". Some school even offer graduate course and degree in "compitions Mathematics".

37. In high schools and elematary school, private schools, many teachers became the coaches for math competitions. In after school programe and and training camps, not only the excellent students study for the math competitions but also the average level students.

38. Being winners in the math competitions not only brings honors to the students and their teachers but also beneficts their career. For example, the winners in the math competitions can select the most famous college in china.

39. The math competions in China have become a popular educational event for Chinese students.It impro-ved and encouraged math teaching dramatically. It has helped thous-ands of talented students. It also flourished and discovered a lot of gifted students.It really contributea lot to Chinese education and pro-gress.

40. Competitions in mathematics also inspire the Olympic spirals. It has positive effects on Edu-cation, Mathematics and produ-cing talented students. Here we list three main results:

41. (1) It produces a new branch in mathematical education. Olympic Mathematics, it is the higher level fundamental education. It polishs students' talents, it brings intere-sting creative after school pro-gram, it populize modern mathe-matics.

42. (2) It produce a newer level of mathematical education.

43. (3) It forms a new academic school in mathematics, this schools inclu-des math educators,Mathemati-tians,adimistrators and high school teachers. There are many Chinese leading mathematicians are among this group, such as the national coaches for the Chinese IMO team.

44. However, there are also some problems in mathematical competi-tions, such as, too many, a lot of re-peats,too much economic interests involved. One problem is that, in order to make sure the excellent student to get good ranking in math competitions, very specified know-ledge are taught in very early stage of their educations.

45. Another problem is that spending too much time and efforts on training.

46. We should pay serious atten-tions to these problems and fix them, otherwise it would seriously japerdize the healthy developmen-ts of mathematical competitions in China.

47. 2. Studies of Elementary Mathematics

48. It has been well known that Chinese mathematics has a long history. 11 to 14 Century is the golden age of Chinese mathema-tics. It was in the leading position of the world.

49. From mondern mathematical view piont,the mathematics from that time belong to the "elementary mathematics". We have to view the "advanced" and "elementary"in a historic contexts.

50. After suffering a long decay, Chinese mathematics started to catch up with the mondern math-ematics since 1940s. The study of elementary mathenatics is also making progress. Thousands of high school math teachers partici-pate in the research in elementary mathematics.

51. These high school teachers study mathematical problems with great interests through teaching practice, reading mathematical books and comm uni cations with colleagues.The researches they did are imense amount. But it also has some problems such as lower level in creativity and originality.

52. However, among them, there are also excellent researchers and some of the achievements are great. The researchers' results are deed and with a lot of applications. Let me list some names of these researchers and their results.

54. In other areas such as combinatorics, counting, Conic Curve, Sequence, Functional equations,Absolute equations, Combinatoric geometry, Elementary Number theorem, there a lotof wonderful resluts that contribute to the world.

55. Especially in the fields related to the mathematical competitions, the results are excellent. A famous mathematican, Lizhi Xu wrote" It is hard to imagine to have a first class IMO math team without the support from the researchers's first class work in the elementary mathema-tical research" (Preface from" Elementary Mathematics").

56. On August, 1991, the first national meeting on elementary mathematical research was held in Tianjin normal Unversity. A committee on comunication and coorperation of elementary math research was formed. Chunli Zhou, Shiming Yang, ZhiYang contributed a lot to these.

57. In 2006, the 6 th national meeting on elementary research was held in Hunan University. After that, on November 2007, on the general meeting of the excutive board of the meeting, the National Associationon Elementary Mathematics was founded.

58. There will be another national meeting on communications on elementary mathematical research in Shenzhen this Auguest .

59. The regional mathematical associations are founded in different provinces and cities, some of them are the sub-branch of the mathematical association, such as Hunan, Fujian, Jiangxi and Guizhou. Most siganificantly, the research groups are also formed based on research area, such as Inequality Research group (founded as early as 1985).

61. There are will a new journal "Studies on Elementary Mathem-atics" published by Harbi Indutrial University, which was supported by the famous mathematician Shingshen Chern. There are so many excellent books on elemen-tary mathematics published .

62. We really hope that the Natio-nal Elementary Mathematical Association can be accepted and recognized by Chinese Mathema-tical Association and become a branch of them.

63. Thus, the elementary mathema -tics in China can be more vivid, active, and make larger progress. Eventually it will become part of the science communities in the new century.

64. Thank you Thank you for listening my talk, best wishes to you all.