‘I want to be more true to myself’: Chinese maths genius who became a monk returns to secular life more than a decade later with psychology business
- Liu Zhiyu won top international maths awards and a prestigious scholarship but left it all behind to become a Buddhist monk
- He has now announced via social media his plans to resume living a secular life and start a new psychology training business
A Chinese maths genius who shot to national prominence more than a decade ago after turning his back on his career to become a monk is in the spotlight again following an announcement that he is starting a psychology training business.
Liu Zhiyu, who once won top international maths awards and a full scholarship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), announced his intention to resume a secular life on social media last week.
The 34-year-old, who declined the MIT offer and entered a Buddhist monastery in suburban Beijing in 2010 after his undergraduate studies at Peking University, has now decided to devote himself to the training of therapists with a start-up business.
Having come back as “co-founder of Huaxia Xinyuan”, the name of the newly formed business venture, the former gold medallist at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2006 said this is what he truly wants at the moment.
“I want to be more true to myself. No need to play the role expected by others,” he told Jiupai News on the weekend.
“I think psychology can work together with Buddhism. They’re not contradictory. We can help people solve their mental health issues via psychological methods, and they can achieve better results if they study Buddhism at the same time,” he said.
Liu shot to fame as a secondary school student when he won a series of global competitions in maths and was admitted by Peking University as a genius in 2006.