[CTcard]

Here's the best Chinese-American immigration story I've read.  I wish I could remember the names and where I read this (probably one of Peter Hessler's books).  I'm probably getting some of the details wrong.  Here's the gist.  Two friends from China became friends in the US as graduate students.  One got his PhD in Literature.  The other in Physics.  After the Communist revolution, the writer tried to persuade the Physicist to go back to China.  The writer felt it was their patriotic duty to return home to educate the next generation and help the motherland.  The Physicist told him that this was stupid and crazy because the Communists would bring 1984 to life.  The writer went back and the Communists celebrated him at first.  Eventually persecution during the Cultural Revolution drove him to suicide.  The Physicist won a Nobel Prize.

I think that the physicist has to be one of two possible people: Yang Chen Ning or  Lee Tsung-Dao. They won the Nobel together in 1957, and were notable for being very young. Particularly Lee who was (probably) the second youngest to receive the Nobel Prize.*

Here is a link to their page at the Nobel web site. There is a bunch of biographical information available using the links on the left panel.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/p...ates/1957/


*I have seen articles listing Lee as the second and as the third youngest Nobel Prize winner. I am guessing the difference is some technicality such as a difference between when the prize is announced versus when the prize was physically received. Interestingly, the one he is just about tied with is Werner Heisenberg - famous for the uncertainty principle and uncertainty over whether he was a Nazi. The youngest was William Bragg, famous for working with his Dad on the theory of x-ray scattering from crystals and probably unknown to most of this board.

[CTcard]

Here's the best Chinese-American immigration story I've read.  I wish I could remember the names and where I read this (probably one of Peter Hessler's books).  I'm probably getting some of the details wrong.  Here's the gist.  Two friends from China became friends in the US as graduate students.  One got his PhD in Literature.  The other in Physics.  After the Communist revolution, the writer tried to persuade the Physicist to go back to China.  The writer felt it was their patriotic duty to return home to educate the next generation and help the motherland.  The Physicist told him that this was stupid and crazy because the Communists would bring 1984 to life.  The writer went back and the Communists celebrated him at first.  Eventually persecution during the Cultural Revolution drove him to suicide.  The Physicist won a Nobel Prize.

I think that the physicist has to be one of two possible people: Yang Chen Ning or  Lee Tsung-Dao. They won the Nobel together in 1957, and were notable for being very young. Particularly Lee who was (probably) the second youngest to receive the Nobel Prize.*

Here is a link to their page at the Nobel web site. There is a bunch of biographical information available using the links on the left panel.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/p...ates/1957/


*I have seen articles listing Lee as the second and as the third youngest Nobel Prize winner. I am guessing the difference is some technicality such as a difference between when the prize is announced versus when the prize was physically received. Interestingly, the one he is just about tied with is Werner Heisenberg - famous for the uncertainty principle and uncertainty over whether he was a Nazi. The youngest was William Bragg, famous for working with his Dad on the theory of x-ray scattering from crystals and probably unknown to most of this board.