Mathematician Ma Zhiming, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was once a cook who began his mathematical journey with a borrowed bag of math books. Today, a backpack and a water cup are the standard equipment for this mathematician.

To this day, Academician Ma is proud of his skill in cooking rice. In 1968, Ma Zhiming, a high school graduate, responded to Chairman Mao's call to go to the countryside and became a cook in Dukou, Sichuan Province.

Becoming a mathematician for him was an accident. Ma still feels that it was the bag of math books he carried from his classmate's house that led him to this path. He got the books from his high school classmate Fang Ping's mother, Zhang Fang, a mathematics teacher at Sichuan Normal University. Ma still calls her Fang mom to this day.

He started to learn by himself from an easy to understand but a bit laborious book. The more he learned, the more interested he became. Meanwhile, he gradually tasted the pleasure of self-learning. He also asked his friends to ask their teachers for advice. Among them, Prof. Bai Suhua of Sichuan University gave him a lot of help. Mr. Bai worked in the data room of the Department of Mathematics at Sichuan University. Mr. Bai instructed him on what he should study first and later. He told Ma Zhiming whose works were worth reading in a certain field. The young Ma was impressed by Bai's profound knowledge. Because of mathematics, they became friends keeping no secrets from each other.

When he saw Mrs. Zhang Fang again after more than 20 years, he had become an Academician. Zhang embarrassedly asked him, You are an Academician now. How should I address you? Ma Zhiming replied, What’s special for an Academician? You used to call me 'glasses Ma'. So it never changes!

At the age of 24, Ma Zhiming heard that the university had resumed admissions for workers, peasants and soldier students. He contacted the admissions office of the city, saying that he liked mathematics and had been studying on his own for a while, hoping to get a recommendation. Eventually, his work unit agreed to recommend him. However, in the political review documents, he was given a comment that “he didn’t behave himself at work”. He missed the opportunity because of this comment.

But three years later, the cadre who wrote his political review document approached him and offered to recommend him for college because the cadre cherished his talent. At the age of 27, Ma Zhiming was already overage. Fortunately, he had already worked for more than five years. So he became a paid student in the mathematics department of Chongqing Normal University.

When he was in middle school, great scientists such as Madame Curie and Isaac Newton were the idols of his classmates. A few decades later, China hosted the 2002 International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) for the first time. As the chairman of the organizing committee of ICM, Ma had the opportunity to meet many international mathematicians with a high reputation in the world face-to-face.

According to Ma, ICM has had a profound impact on the development of mathematics in China. In the past 10 years, the status of Chinese mathematics in the international arena has increased greatly. In 2015, the International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics was also held in China for the first time.

Ma was elected as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) in 2002 and Vice President of the IMU in 2006, which was the first time for a Chinese mathematician to hold this position. Subsequently, another mathematician, Long Yiming of Nankai University, was elected to the Executive Committee of the IMU. In Ma's opinion, it shows that Chinese mathematics has gained a certain status in the international arena. Although we are still some way from being a mathematical powerhouse, the international counterparts have taken notice of Chinese mathematics and want to hear the voices of Chinese mathematicians.