appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Holly Chik

Copies of the official paper of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Committee of the Communist Party of China are not usually a hot commodity.
But the Saturday edition of Guangxi Daily became an overnight collector’s item after its front-page story on Wang Hong – who last week received the prestigious Fields Medal alongside her compatriot Deng Yu – went viral online.
Wang, who hails from the southern region, took home the highest honour for mathematicians under the age of 40 on July 23. Both awardees, the first Chinese nationals to win the prize in its 90-year history, have become instant celebrities.
On Wednesday, Guangxi Daily said it had arranged for a reprint of the Saturday edition and made it available to buy online after receiving countless messages asking where it could be bought. While the paper did not say how many copies of the Saturday edition it sold, it reportedly has a circulation of 250,000.
The cover story chronicled Wang’s life, beginning in her picturesque hometown of Guilin.
It described how her parents, who taught maths and English at a local secondary school, brought her into the worlds of maths and languages and cultivated a “pure land” in which she could explore her interests.


“The queen of mathematics, having come from the mountain-and-water grace of Guilin, described mathematics during her secondary school years as follows: ‘It is so pure, so abstract – far from everyday clamour – an inner sanctuary for the mind; yet never mere talk of the void or the ungraspable.’”
The article’s headline – “Wang’s Conjecture” – was a play on words, as the ubiquitous surname “Wang” can also mean “monarch” or “queen”.
The piece recounted Wang’s keen pursuit of knowledge while growing up, her brief detour into architecture while studying in Paris, as well as the beauty and freedom in mathematics that eventually led her to return to the field.
“In mathematics, I can freely build anything without needing to ask anyone for permission. So I thought, ‘let’s try again and see what happens’,” the newspaper quoted Wang as saying.
According to Chinese media reports, scalpers resold the edition for as much as 99 yuan (US$14.63). The original price of a copy is 1.35 yuan, according to Guangxi Daily.
Wang, born in 1991, was 16 years old when she was admitted to China’s elite Peking University. She initially studied at the earth and space sciences school before switching to the highly competitive mathematics programme one year later.

After completing her undergraduate education in 2011, she attended France’s Ecole Polytechnique and Paris-Sud University, earning an engineering degree and a master’s degree in mathematics.
She went on to earn her PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under Larry Guth, winner of the 2016 New Horizons in Mathematics Prize for his solutions to long-standing problems in various branches of mathematics. She completed her doctorate in 2019.
She later held a faculty position at the University of California, Los Angeles, following her postdoctoral work at the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey.
She is now a professor at New York University’s Courant Institute and at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques in France.
Wang has made breakthroughs in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory.
In 2025, she and collaborator Joshua Zahl published a 127-page paper proving the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture – a problem that had baffled mathematicians for more than a century.
Their work provides a fresh analytical framework for signal processing applications such as radar and remote sensing.


China tests first practical submarine solar power plant at 10-metre depth in the open sea

Rare earth exposure can triple low birthweight risk: Chinese study

China must enforce high standards of integrity for scientists

Is China’s fabled Empress Dowager Huayang buried near an airport? A study says yes

Science

Scalpers snap up local paper after profile on Fields winner Wang Hong goes viral

Guangxi Daily's cover story chronicled Wang Hong’s life, describing her upbringing and high-flying academic career. Photo: QQ.com/Guangxi Daily

Wang Hong has made breakthroughs in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory. Photo: Xinhua

Fields Medal win: Wang Hong, Deng Yu are first Chinese nationals to score top maths honour

Chinese nationals Deng Yu (left) and Wang Hong (right) have won the Fields Medal, often called the “Nobel Prize of mathematics”. Photo: Handout

The Fields Medal is the top honour for young mathematicians under 40 years of age. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong loses 2030 maths congress to Glasgow. Does Asia need a stronger voice?

Glasgow will host the 2030 International Congress of Mathematicians. Illustration: Shutterstock

Professor Shing-Tung Yau says Asia needs its own regional maths body. Photo: Edmond So

Vietnam’s legendary maths genius Ngo Bao Chau to join University of Hong Kong

Ngo Bao Chau made history in 2010 as the first Vietnamese recipient of the prestigious Fields Medal, regarded as the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Photo: Handout

Maths without borders: how China turned a cement factory into a haven for mathematicians

The Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications (Bimsa) is funded by Beijing’s municipal government and Tsinghua University. Photo: Handout

Once the site of a cement factory, Bimsa’s campus is located in an industrial estate north of Beijing. Photo: Handout

Iranian theoretical physicist Mohammad Hossein Yavartanoo is among the scientists at Bimsa. Photo: Handout

Some professors who conduct research at Bimsa also teach at Tsinghua University’s Qiuzhen College, which was founded in 2021 to cultivate mathematicians. Photo: Handout

News

China

The Saturday edition of Guangxi Daily was resold at a 7,200 per cent mark-up after featuring the hometown maths superstar


The Saturday edition of Guangxi Daily was resold at a 7,200 per cent mark-up after featuring the hometown maths superstar.


France

United States

Paris

Peking University

Scalpers snap up local paper after profile on Fields winner Wang Hong goes viral

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The Saturday edition of Guangxi Daily was resold at a 7,200 per cent mark-up after featuring the hometown maths superstar

The Saturday edition of Guangxi Daily was resold at a 7,200 per cent mark-up after featuring the hometown maths superstar