Abstract
China entered global mathematical mainstream after 1905, when new schools started teaching Western curricula and Chinese students went abroad to receive advanced education. By the mid-1930s, a dynamic mathematical community had been established with ties to research centers all over the world.
At the same time, traditional Chinese mathematics was being studied by first generation historians of mathematics such as Li Yan (1892-1963) and Qian Baocong (1892-1974) as a revealing probe into the Chinese culture. These historians were motivated in their effort by developments in the 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, constructed from the culture of the Edo-period samurais. His Chinese counterparts argued that achievements of premodern Chinese mathematics meant that Chinese culture as a whole had a potential to embrace science and modernity.
Cultural nationalism was challenged by Marxists. Japanese historian Kinnosuke Ogura (1885-1962), influenced by G.
Plekhanov, developed a class analysis of mathematics to reject cultural essentialism. Many of his articles were translated into Chinese, including a detailed criticism of Ludwig Bieberbach's (1886-1982) racist classification of mathematicians used to promote his ideas about "German mathematics".
This article also warned against Japanese "Bieberbachs" and attempts to define a racially pure Japanese mathematics. In this paper, I will show that the interest Ogura's articles generated in China was not a reflection of Chinese mathematicians' belief in the universalism of mathematics, but rather of the power of Marxist social theories and the utility of Ogura's arguments in the struggle against cultural imperialism.