[WAAMA News] On March 31, 2019, the International Symposium on the Inheritance of Chinese Abacus Culture and the Conference on Promoting the Achievements of Abacus Resources Database, jointly sponsored by the Chinese Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Association, the Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Association of Shanxi Province and the Shanxi Finance and Taxation College, was held in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. A total of more than 100 people attended the event. They include Liu Jianhua, Chairwoman of the World Association of Abacus and Mental Arithmetic, Cheng Beiping, Secretary-General of the World Association of Abacus and Mental Arithmetic, Zhao Xiangyi, Assistant to Secretary-General of the World Association of Abacus and Mental Arithmetic, relevant leaders of Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Associations of China’s provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, international and domestic experts in abacus and mental arithmetic education and research, representatives of universities and project team members in the establishment of the abacus resources database, and media personnel.

Liu Jianhua stress the historical and practical significance of the inclusion of abacus into the list of world intangible heritages as well as of the inheritance and development of abacus culture. In her speech, she pointed out that Chinese Abacus Skill, as a great creation of the ancient working people, is not only the cultural heritage of the Chinese people, but also the cultural heritage of the people of the world. Inheriting this important cultural heritage is bound to become our historical mission and our responsibility.

The conference, linked by the promotion of the achievements of the abacus resources database, aims to provide a valuable exchange platform for the inheritance and innovation of Chinese Abacus Culture and to root cultural confidence in more people’s hearts. The Ministry of Education approved a project in 2015 to build a national-level abacus sub-database for the inheritance and innovation of ethnic culture in vocational education. The abacus resources database project is sponsored by Shanxi Finance and Taxation College. The Chinese Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Association and the Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Association of Shanxi Province provide professional guidance in this regard. Six well-known Chinese financial vocational colleges have participated in the construction of five functional modules, namely, a series of long-distance abacus courses, an online abacus museum, an online mathematics books museum, an abacus information center and an abacus skills training center. So far, the abacus resources database construction project team has pooled a total of 10,014 digital resources, and has built a large-capacity, shared, interactive and continuously-updated professional resources database for the inheritance and innovation of Chinese culture in vocational education, which has reached the international advanced level.

Delegates at the meeting highly praised the achievements made by the abacus resources database, especially the 3D online museum built as part of the database, which keeps numerous ancient mathematics books and abacus in the form of electronic data. It not only comprehensively preserves the history, but also, more importantly, spreads the abacus culture through the Internet and provides a wealth of information for abacus fans.

Abacus is the cultural treasure of the Chinese nation. It has been used for more than 1,800 years and is reputed as the fifth greatest invention in Chinese history. Because of its simple calculation mechanism and unique mathematical connotation, it is renowned as “the oldest computer in the world”. On December 4, 2013, the 8th Standing Committee of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage officially included Chinese Zhusuan project in the list of intangible cultural heritage of the humanity. As one of the important contents of the symposium, the participants shared their own practices and thoughts in the field of abacus and mental arithmetic from different angles and levels.

Professor Zhao Lisheng, President of Shanxi Finance and Taxation College, is the person in charge of the abacus resources database project. He made an academic report on “Chinese Zhusuan from a Multi-dimensional Perspective” at the meeting. He shared insights into the inheritance and innovation of Chinese Abacus Culture from the three dimensions of scientific perspective, cultural perspective and technical perspective, and listed five anti-cultural phenomena in the process of the inheritance and innovation of abacus culture. His report has put the participants into deep thoughts.

Ms. Huey-Chiang Ma, Ms. Sally YaLi Chou and Mr. Harry Shih-Herng Ma, Chairman, Vice Chairman and Consultant respectively of Chinese American Abacus Association, reviewed the practices of promoting abacus culture and abacus and mental arithmetic teaching in the United States, and put forward their outlooks in this regard.

Hwang Ho Joong, Chairman of South Korea’s International Association of Abacus, Mental Arithmetic and Mathematics, delivered a speech titled The Status Quo of Abacus education in South Korea.

Wu Baiming, Chairman of Association of Professional Abacus Education (HK) Limited, Hong Kong SAR, China, expounded the concept and practice of promoting abacus and mental arithmetic teaching by using the Abacus Treasure APP.