Blaschke, Osgood, Wiener, Hadamard and the Early Development of Modern Mathematics in China

Abstract

In ancient times, China made great contributions to world civilization and in particular to mathematics. However, modern sciences including mathematics came to China rather too late. The first Chinese university was founded in 1895. The first mathematics department in China was formally opened at the university only in 1913. At the beginning of the twentieth century, some Chinese went to Europe, the United States of America and Japan for higher education in modern mathematics and returned to China as the pioneer generation. They created mathematics departments at the Chinese universities and sowed the seeds of modern mathematics in China. In 1930s, when a dozen of Chinese universities already had mathematics departments, several leading mathematicians from Europe and USA visited China, including Wilhelm Blaschke, George D. Birkhoff, William F. Osgood, Norbert Wiener and Jacques Hadamard. Their visits not only had profound impact on the mathematical development in China, but also became social events sometimes. This paper tells the history of their visits.