Matthias Kreck plays the cello in Beijing. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)
Despite the hectic pace, Beijing has witnessed great progress, with the economy taking off and more skyscrapers appearing, Kreck said. What's more, China has already equalized access to broad education, where students in both rural and urban areas can take more courses, particularly in the arts.
Education has become more authentic as "we lower the level that wants to reach everybody," he mused. He doesn't personally encourage additional training after school hours, though many people believe this is the purpose of elite education.
It was free time after school that helped him develop a great interest in math and explore its secrets, Kreck said. He used a widely-seen video on how to steady a wobbly table that he posted on YouTube and demonstrated at the SELF forum as an example.
Normally, it is easy to steady it by wedging a piece of folded paper under a leg. But for the mathematician, just rotating the table in a certain way does the trick, where a mathematical proof helps the method work for four-legged tables on an uneven surface.
"People have deemed music and painting ("malerei" in German; two of Kreck's 'three Ms'), all to do with arts," Kreck said. "To me, math itself is an art motivated by beauty."
The best proof of this, he said, is the aesthetic association with the "golden ratio", upheld by the ancient Greeks.
