Why are Chinese people so good in physics and chemistry, but almost all top scientists are foreigners?

Because the output of good talents and good scientific research results requires an ecosystem, and the establishment of an ecosystem is far more complicated than you think. Of course I'm not from that era, but I can give a rough idea. Soon I realized that the real situation was far more troublesome than I imagined. And I think my words will be very confusing, because this thing is really messy and complicated. The time may not be completely correct.

The college entrance examination had just been resumed during the reform and opening up. At that time, the college system was in dilapidated condition, so we first needed a group of good faculty. This group of faculty members are qualified for the university’s educational research work. Some of these scholars are already talented, and some were trained after the reform and opening up. However, at this time, most of them are lagging behind in foreign language proficiency, so it will take time to keep up with the progress of the West. Ph.D. students all know that the research questions and ideas in what others publish are often formed a few years ago and developed step by step in the past few years, so reading literature is not enough to catch up with the West. At this time, a group of scholars living in the United States and Europe are needed to come back for guidance and exchanges. There are not many such people to begin with, and even fewer are divided into various majors, so progress is slow.

At the same time, there was no high school entrance examination in that era. Many people who graduated from junior high school went to technical secondary schools and were directly assigned to jobs. If the integration with higher education was not enough, a group of well-trained teachers were needed. When graduated teachers go to teach in middle schools, there is a delay. We need to wait for normal universities to take shape and have a stable source of students and stable teachers. This is difficult because the source of college students depends on good high school education, and high school education depends on good normal universities. This is a dilemma, the resolution of which will be costly. In fact, to this day, you can still see many middle school teachers with backward ideas and poor academic performance. This problem has not yet been completely solved.

The high school education was barely connected, but at that time it was necessary to vigorously develop the economy. The role and demand of engineering colleges were greater than that of basic subjects, so the allocation for basic subjects was small, and there was no way to communicate with foreign countries, so the priority was low. To this day, the salaries of doctoral and master's degree students are still pitifully low, and this problem has not been completely solved.

The time progressed to the 1990s, when the university system was slowly taking shape. IMO, these young people who were crazy about winning gold medals were born in the womb. Let’s fast forward to today. The 27-year-old who was born in 1990 Years old, 32 years old born in 1985. Most people at the age of 22 have graduated from college, and it takes almost 5 years for them to graduate from a PhD. Basic subjects such as mathematics require one or two rounds of postdoctoral work, which lasts for three to six years. After that, you will be promoted to AP, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, and finally associate professor, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, and you will get tenure. Of course this is the American system. The United States is the center of academic exchange in the world. If a person wants to make achievements in basic subjects, then some schools in the United States and Europe are the best choice. In other words, many of the generation you want to make big news about are still worried about their teaching positions. What they want more is stable and meaningful research that is not necessarily world-shaking. Because these studies can help them gain a foothold. Assuming they return to China at this time, most of their research partners are also in the West, or more bluntly, in the United States. After they become domestic professors, they will also run out for meetings every now and then. Our own country has not yet become a center of academic traffic. Scholars from their own country cannot output results stably in the country for a long time.

This is the ecological problem I am talking about. China cannot become a node in the academic world and produce results around this node. Even if we have patriotic scholars, they still need a lot of exchanges with foreign scholars to ensure the advancement of their results. At this time, if there is a world-class mathematician, it is very likely that he or she will have American citizenship or a green card. At this time, more domestic college students are studying abroad, and more of them will eventually become Chinese scholars, but that is a matter of the future.

The development of the entire academic circle is interlocked. The more links there are, the greater the delay. The top students in high school mathematics, physics and chemistry you call are just the result of high-intensity training and competition in the national system. It is completely different from the problems faced by academic circles. Furthermore, killing foreigners instantly is too biased. I don’t think we kill foreigners instantly.

Of course, this is only a small part of this large group of problems. You must know that the output of world-class mathematicians is closely related to the times. Chen Jingrun was able to prove 1+2 because countless mathematicians paved the way and proved many weakened conclusions. He himself also benefited from many previous results, such as Vinogradov's Weyl triangle and method. Vinogradov himself also proved the three prime number theorem (1+1+1) earlier in the last century. Russia has made great contributions to the development of world mathematics. In such an environment, I am not surprised that Chen Jingrun’s results were given by Soviet scientists. We are extremely lucky to have Chen Jingrun. In the eyes of ordinary people, world-class mathematicians and physicists may just be some extraordinary geniuses, arranged by God to come down to earth and open the door to a new world for mankind. As everyone knows, behind these scientists there are countless unknown heroes who work day and night, using each failure to tell us which roads are not feasible. These scholars have given inspiration and hope to future generations through constant communication and self-criticism.

The last lucky person relied on his talent and hard work to seize the opportunities of the times and became a "world-class scientist" who is considered very powerful by most people but does not know what he did.

After knowing this, you have to understand that for China to stably produce such masters with a high probability in the 21st century, China needs a large number of world-class scholars, a large number of world-class universities, generous remuneration for scholars and Stable scientific research conditions, a large amount of scientific research funds and a whole host of other conditions that I can’t even think of myself. Don’t you think China still has a long, long way to go?

Thank you all.