Hua Loo-Keng's Popularization of Mathematics and the Cultural Revolution

•Pradoxical Fate of Hua Loo-Keng's Popularization.•Hua Loo-Keng's Move to Popularization of Mathematics in 1964-66.•First Attempt at Popularization of the Overall Planning Method.•Mathematics for Everyone: the Optimum Selection Method.•The Political Environment in the Cultural Revolution and Hua's Popularization Effort.

Before 1966, Chinese mathematician Hua Loo-Keng had singled out “Two Methods” as a way to truly applied and useful mathematics. The Overall Planning Method, based on the Critical Path Method widely used in USA, mostly appealed to middle and upper management. This limited its spread during the Cultural Revolution. The Optimum Selection Method, also of US origin, was more mass-oriented and ready for popularization. Nevertheless, Hua met resistance from leftist radicals, whose ideological objections sprang from an underlying power struggle. Hua built popularization teams, mostly from talented younger people whose careers were disrupted by the Cultural Revolution, and thus opened a path for many of them to important roles in China's scientific infrastructure after 1976. Hua Loo-Keng's efforts, while interrupted during the Cultural Revolution and the subsequent political campaigns, were also helped by the populist ethos of the movement, and by the lack of other non-political endeavors at that time. In this sense, the Cultural Revolution gave Hua Loo-Keng's popularization its importance and long-term impact.