Chinese 'Rain Man' not a genius: experts  

“中国雨人”问诊 专家：确实是在心算并非靠记忆

岁末年关，因为一档电视节目而被推上舆论浪尖的“中国雨人”——山西五台县少年周玮，日前与家人一同来到上海，踏上求医寻访之旅。专家在测试后认定，周玮心算能力的确很强，“不应简单地将周玮称为‘天才’或‘白痴’，他的案例非常特殊”。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- Professors at various Shanghai universities have concluded that Zhou Wei, dubbed the "Chinese Rain Man," has extraordinary mathematical ability, but that he's no genius, the Beijing News reported.

Zhou Wei is a mentally disabled man who dazzled the nation on a TV show earlier this month when he calculated the 14th root of a sixteen-digit number within one minute.

Some accused Zhou of memorizing the possible results, rather than calculating them on his own.

But Li Xianchun, associate professor at the School of Psychology and Cognitive Science of East China Normal University, said Zhou did the arithmetic in his head during the test. "Zhou has a unique way of calculating," Li added.

Xu Zhenli, a researcher at the Department of Mathematics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said a brain scan revealed that Zhou is a very special case, but that his mental arithmetic ability isn't at the world top level. "Defining him simply as a 'genius' or 'idiot' is not proper," Xu added.

Zhou's mother, who accompanied him to Shanghai for the test, said, "I don't want to become famous, I just want my son to be confident."

Liu Qiaoyu, a professor at East China Normal University, said Zhou has a partial communication impairment, and whether it can be improved is uncertain.

Liu also said that more than 30 million children in China are partially or completely impaired in their ability to communicate.