Talented China girl, 12, teaches college-level maths online, attracts 2.9 million followers and sparks debate about child prodigies
- College students joke about their academic reliance on little girl, sceptics voice doubts about her
- Mother says daughter’s ‘teaching to learn’ strategy helps her acquire knowledge more easily
A highly talented 12-year-old girl in China who teaches college-level maths online has amassed 2.9 million followers on social media and sparked a discussion about child prodigies.
In her educational videos, the girl, surnamed Gu, stands in front of a whiteboard with a marker pen in hand.
She eloquently explains various maths problems, ranging from geometry to functions and even calculus, and primarily focuses on levels of difficulty typical for first-year college students.
In December 2023, she received plaudits when she successfully simplified a complex university-level maths problem using a method students said they used three days later during the postgraduate entrance exams.
“Thanks, Teacher Gu, for helping me earn an extra five points,” one college student commented below her video.
Gu’s exceptional mathematical abilities at a young age stem from her deep interest in the subject.
She posts videos to spread her approach to mathematics while exploring different learning methods.
“Initially, I encouraged her to record videos explaining problems to enhance her own understanding of mathematics,” Gu’s mother said.
This approach to learning is known as the Feynman Technique, which was developed by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman.
It states that people are able to acquire knowledge more efficiently if they are “teaching to learn”.
In 2022, Gu’s first video featured a secondary school maths problem. In the maiden video her tone was vibrant, if naive.
Now, an increasing number of people seek advice from her, and she records the process of solving the problems in daily videos that range from three to five minutes.
One of her followers said: “Some high school problems used to baffle me, but after watching her videos, it all became clear.”
Another person joked about “relying on a 12-year-old girl to explain maths to me” even though they are in college.
Gu is reportedly still attending primary school and is considering competing in the International Mathematical Olympiad, a global maths competition for pre-university students.
Her success has sparked an online discussion about gifted children.
One person doubted her skills and said: “Geniuses come once in a century; surely, there must be a team behind her.”
But some disagreed: “The problems Gu tackles are challenging. If she didn’t understand these mathematical concepts herself, she would not be able to explain them.”
Meanwhile, a five-year-old boy, Yu Guo, has 740,000 followers on Douyin and teaches coding basics entirely in English.
