She says using the abacus is good for dexterity and mental acuity. She records her daily cash flow on her abacus, then writes it in a notebook.
“My son is a doctor, and he encourages me to use the abacus,” she says. “Some of my friends say it can prevent Alzheimer’s disease.”
For most young people, the abacus is a curiosity.
However, Liu the accountant takes her seven-year-old son to a zhu suan class after school, while other parents take their children to “Olympic math” training.
“Zhu suan is one aspect of profound Chinese culture and a test for the brain and fingers. I think practice can help mental calculation and improve my son’s intelligence,” Liu says.
“When fewer and fewer young people can grasp zhu suan, those who can do that definitely distinguish themselves,” she says.
“Zhu suan is very helpful for children’s calculating skills,” says Wen Sihui, a 36-year-old arithmetic teacher at a middle school.
UNESCO recognition of the abacus may generate more interest, she says, adding that she expects to see more specialized, certificate courses and abacus competitions. She also expects commercial interests to cash in and parents to use abacus training to win their child more points for admission to quality schools.
“It’s still better to see Chinese children using and abacus,” she says, “so the young generation won’t forget about the ancient computer.”
What’s an abacus
The typical abacus has a hardwood frame and hardwood beads, famous for the rapid, clicking sounds of calculations. It has two decks and more than seven rods.
The upper deck, which is known as heaven, has two beads on each rod. Each bead has the value of five. There are five beads on each rod on the bottom deck, known as earth. Each has the value of one. The beads are moved up and down during calculations.
It can be used for high-speed addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square roots, cube roots and other calculations. Some devices can be quite large and complex.
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