Rural Student Bests University Competitors in China’s Math Contest

01A 17-year-old vocational school student from rural China is being celebrated on social media after reaching the final round of a math competition.

02She defeated many other students from top universities around the country.

03Zhang Ping, who is studying fashion design, finished 12th in the Alibaba Global Math Competition.

04She is one of 802 competitors who made it to the final round, an eight-hour test that took place recently.

05Domo Academy, the organizer of the competition, posted a video that included an interview with Zhang on social media.

06It received more than 800,000 likes and 90,000 comments shortly after it was posted.

07Zhang says in the video that she did not think she deserved to join the competition.

08She also says she enjoys working on high-level math as it brings out my desire to explore.

09Congratulations poured in.

10People visited her parents' home in a village of the Jiangsu area on China's east coast.

11They brought alcohol and money to show support.

12Her pictures were shown on the walls of shopping centers in her hometown, Lianxu.

13Zhizhang University and Jiangsu University praised her on their Weibo social media accounts.

14It is unclear how Zhang ended up in vocational school.

15However, her story reminded some people in China of the inequality between rural and urban areas.

16Some believe the divide can make it harder for even the best students to climb the economic ladder.

17While Zhang Ping is openly celebrated, many Chinese feel deep down inside that her story highlights the hopelessness of Chinese education, said Zhang Shuiqing, a China-based education researcher.

18He said that citizens without power, wealth, or guanci, the Chinese term for connections, have little chance of success.

19In recent years, inequality in education appears to have worsened.

20China spent 17% less on education in rural areas than in cities in 2019 for the required nine years of education.

21That does not include high school.

22In 2013, spending was only 2% lower in rural areas.

23The findings are based on data from a Peking University report on the urban-rural divide in spending per capita.

24Ministry of Education data show that 70% of students in Chinese vocational schools are from rural areas.

25The high percentage suggests that the education system works like a caste system, Zhang, the researcher, said.

26A caste system divides and groups people into a leveled social order.

27Zhang, the rural student, is the only vocational school student among all the finalists.

28The others, who are mostly Chinese, mainly come from top universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and California Institute of Technology, as well as China's top two schools, Tsinghua University and Peking University.

29Winners will be awarded $2,000 to $30,000 in prize money.

30The large Chinese e-commerce company, Alibaba, established the competition six years ago.

31The company's leader at the time, Jack Ma, said the goal was to find students who enjoy math and then encourage and support them.

32Zhang did well enough on the entrance exam to go to high school, an official with the vocational school told state broadcaster CCTV.

33The official said Zhang applied to the vocational school instead of a high school because her older sister and good friends were students there.

34Other Chinese media said it was because she came from a poor family and the vocational school gave her a scholarship.

35Zhang says in the video that she plans to get into a good university.

36The Associated Press was not able to reach the student for comment.

37I'm Katie Weaver.