Lin Min

linmin67@hotmail.com

AS the first Chinese person to win a Nobel prize, Chen Ning Yang has been a legend, the pride of the Chinese diaspora and the nation as a whole, and a role model for Chinese students pursuing further education overseas.

In addition to his achievements in science, Yang is known for his deep love of the motherland. He visited China in the summer of 1971, shortly after the landmark Ping-Pong Diplomacy, becoming the first renowned American scholar to visit New China.

Even after he became a U.S. citizen in 1964, he frequently traveled to Hong Kong and the mainland to give lectures to university students. While in the U.S., he delivered lectures in various cities, calling for rapprochement with China. In 1971, Yang testified before the U.S. Senate’s foreign policy committee, presenting evidence that Diaoyu Islands and their adjacent islets are part of China’s territory.

After China launched its reform and opening up, Yang, on many occasions, advised the Chinese Government on how to improve science education. China has established several math and physics awards according to his suggestions. In 1997, Yang helped Tsinghua University set up the Center for Advanced Study, which was modeled after the U.S.’ Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Over the years, he has helped Tsinghua and other Chinese universities introduce overseas talent and even donated his income from Tsinghua to help fund the introduction and cultivation of talent. In 2015, Yang regained his Chinese citizenship at 93.

Yang was born and raised at a time when China was suffering from enormous tribulations. He has witnessed a once war-torn, poverty-stricken country progress into the world’s second-largest economy within decades. This may explain why he loves his motherland so much and why he remains upbeat toward the country’s future.

By the time Yang went to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. degree in 1945, the defeated Japanese army was withdrawing from China, ending a 14-year war of aggression.

“My schoolmates and I had gone through the seemingly endless night of our Chinese nation,” Yang recalled in 2008, referring to the Japanese invasion when explaining the naming of his book, “Dawn Light.” “Fortunately, I was able to greet the dawn light.”

Yang did not forget his roots after making great achievements away from home. Speaking at the 1957 Nobel Prize awards ceremony, he said he was a product of Chinese and Western cultures, and a product of both harmony and conflict between the two. He was proud of Chinese traditions but at the same time devoted to modern science, he added.

Decades later, what he said at the Nobel ceremony remains relevant. For millions of Chinese students who are studying overseas, there is no better role model than Yang.