Why Are Chinese So Smart?

Posted: 6/18/2017

Trigger

I was always interested in why is it that some populations have disproportionately more highly intelligent people than others. Something that in our so politically correct times in the West cannot be anymore discussed so easily.

I readily admit that I sure have missed some populations here. I bet there are also African peoples who display this phenomenon, but I do not know much about it yet. But there were certainly also e.g. exceptional kingdoms in African history.

I apologize to any people not mentioned here (e.g. Russians, Indians, Germans, French, Portuguese, Greek, Japanese, Koreans, Mexicans and many others).

Disclaimer

This post has absolutely nothing to do with any form of racism or any form of supremacy etc.!

First, About Jews

There are genetic factors; a historical tradition of and high regard for discourse and learning; constant persecution over the centuries; a very strong cohesion and storytelling; forced into modern, highly sophisticated professions like merchants or banking or jurisprudence or medical professions and so on.

Second, About Hungarians

I might be wrong, but for a small size population like the Hungarians it is surprising to realize how many outstanding scientists or mathematicians were Hungarians (Edward Teller,  John von Neumann). Unfortunately, I have not checked how many of them were Jews as well. It also appears that the Hungarian background is not always easy to detect (e.g. I had no clue that Milton Friedman’s parents were immigrants from Hungary and he was Jewish, and I am a big fan of him, or was it e.g. him that contributed to my impression that some Hungarians made outstanding achievements to humanity).

Unfortunately, I have not much a clue why these people have such an outstanding number of super intelligent men and women. Hungarians surely speak a peculiar language. Was the Austrian-Hungarian empire involved? Probably!

Now, To The Chinese People

I am sure, there are other reasons: e.g. large population, higher probability of some super smart people among them (likewise India); one of the oldest civilizations on earth (likewise India); oldest philosophies of learning and wisdom; ancient tradition of inventions and more …

Then, there is the unique, very old written and oral language of the Chinese. One of the most intractable, major languages for Westerners on this planet.

Just to memorize all of the about 2-3,000 different Chinese characters in common use despite their similarities and common features is a mind boggling feat of the brain. Beats any Western crossword puzzle or other mind or memory training games etc. any time.

Chinese is a tonal language with four major tones and one neutral tone. Can you imagine the number of permutations of characters and tones this allows for? Absolutely mind boggling! If you think Western classical music is a complex composition, try Chinese language.

Just to give an example, the Chinese phonetic word wei has, to my admittedly very limited understanding of the language, about a total of 400 differently spelled words and meanings associated with it, very, very roughly equally distributed over the four major tones. Of which about 80 words are in frequent, if not daily use and are recognised by many Chinese people.

I wonder how much wiring of neurons in the brain is necessary just to master this language?

The Chinese people still have to recover from several hundred years of self inflicted isolation from the rest of the world and from over 70 years of communist dictatorship, but the sleeping giant is awakening …

However, the complex Chinese language is also arguably the greatest obstacle for Chinese people to become world citizens. Perhaps automated natural language translation or artificial intelligence will help to bridge the language divide in the future. We can only hope the Chinese people will one day voluntarily adopt the simpler 26 alphabetical characters like we use in the West. A reverse adaptation is a bit unthinkable ...

What About The Scottish, Or Italians

I would believe that also the fairly small populations of the Scottish as well as others have a disportionately high incidence of very intelligent people (e.g. Adam Smith, James Clerk Maxwell, James Watt, Alexander Graham Bell, Lord Kelvin).

Italians, I regret that they may have reached their zenith perhaps a few centuries ago. I might be mistaken, but Italians (but also Greeks) might be an example where over history the output of very intelligent people has actually declined. Which Italians come to mind after Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei or Niccolo Machiavelli?