Overview of the mathematical exchanges between China and France (1880--1949) (Q1272579)

The authors give an overview of the successive waves of Chinese students who went to France and could take lectures in mathematics between 1880 and 1949. Among the students from the technical schools of the Fuzhou arsenal who went to France from 1880 on, two are found to have studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. After the foundation of the Chinese Republic in 1911, students kept going to France, some of whom studied mathematics. The authors describe how, due to their difficult financial situation, they had to work in factories to pay for their studies, and how a society was founded to help them find such jobs. The political will in France from the 1920s onwards to extend the French cultural influence in the Far East resulted in the establishment of a binational University, based both in France and in China, where then Chinese students could read books by the main French mathematicians. This institutional background caused a significant increase of Chinese mathematicians taking French degrees, and the authors describe how associations were organized to support them. The last part of the paper gives an overview of the biographies of the most important Chinese mathematicians who then took their degrees in France. The authors conclude by formulating the outline of a research program for taking this research further.