Abstract
By the mid-1930s, Chinese historians of mathematics had achieved broad recognition of the strengths and richness of mathematics in pre-modern China. They were motivated in their effort by development in history of mathematics abroad, especially in Japan.
The Japanese historian Yoshio Mikami (1875-1950) understood mathematics as a particular offshoot of a holistic national culture, essentially tied to a biologically conditioned race. His Chinese counterparts, such as Li Yan (1892-1963) and Qian Baocong (1892-1974), argued more subtly about the ability of Chinese ancestors to produce, independently from foreign influences, remarkable and important mathematical results.
However, this nationalistic approach did not go unchallenged. Global developments were again key catalysts.
As the German mathematician Ludwig Bieberbach (1886-1982) tried to enforce racial purity in German mathematics, he was criticized by the Japanese mathematician and historian Kinnosuke Oguro, who also warned against Japanese Bieberbachs and attempts to define a racially pure Japanese mathematics. These criticisms were widely reported in China.
This implicit cricitism of notions of national character and fixed racial mentality shows that even in the age of heightened nationalism, many Chinese intellectuals acknowledged the universalism of mathematics and rejected attempts to link it with some imagined national character