Wise move by Nobel Laureate Gao Kun

Gao Kun(screenshot)

Nobel Laureate Gao Kun and the significance of a decision made 6 decades ago.

On October 6, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (RSAS) unveiled the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2009. One of them is Mr. Gao Kun, honored for his groundbreaking achievement in the transmission of light in optical fibers. The other two are American scientists Mr.Willard S. Boyle and Mr. George E. Smith credited for their invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit known as the CCD sensor. Mr Gao was awarded half of the prize while Mr Boyle and Smith share the rest.

It was taken for granted that the Nobel Prize should go to Kao, well-known as the father of optical fibre for many years. But for the majority that are not involved in scientific research, the selection of his name has a special meaning. Putting it simply, the right decisions made by his family when the regime was changing in 1949 mainland China.

Eight Chinese ethnic scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Science so far. Among them, four were born in mainland China between 1926 and 1939, namely Yang Zhengning，LI Zhengdao, Cui Qi and Gao Kun the latest winner. They would have had an entirely different career if they had grown up and lived in China: to experience the never-ending political movements, including Land Reform, cracking down on counter-reactionaries, Anti-rightist Movement, the Three-Year Disaster and the cultural revolution. It would be absolutely impossible for them to have engaged in the noble cause of scientific research and, under that sterile environment, their ability to survive is questionable.

Of the four, Yang Zhengning and Li Zhengdao left for the U.S. to study before 1949 and chose to stay after they earned university degrees. They did not waver and yield to pressure made by celebrities such as Qian Xuesheng and Hua Luogeng calling overseas student to return to Communist China, even when Mao Zedong himself stated his welcome at a meeting of the highest level in the 1970s. Yang and Li did not re-settle in China until recently when China had amassed enormous wealth through cheap labor.

Fleeing communism

As the regime change loomed in 1949, Kao’s parents, taking their son, 1933-born Gao Kun with them, set off for Hong Kong. Gao then found his way to Britain and then back to Hong Kong. While his award-winning research was in full swing, political persecution in mainland China was raging frenziedly, extending from the political arena to all fronts and all levels in the society. It is indisputable that Kao’s parents made a wise decision.

In the absence of a Nobel Prize for Mathematical achievement, the Fields Medal is the best-known prize awarded to outstanding mathematicians under 40. Two Chinese in this profession have won it, one being China-born Qiu Chengtong. Born in Shangtou in Guangdong province in April 1949, Qiu Chengtong went with his parents and siblings to capitalist Hong Kong, deserting the then “fiery socialist” construction. Thanks to this decision of his parents, the international mathematics community could boast a member of mathematical genius that has brought about fundamental changes to this science.

Should his parents have decided otherwise, Qiu might have waited until aged 30 to be admitted to university. It is very unlikelythat he would have been able to accomplish anything in the field of mathematics that requires dogged efforts from a budding age on, no matter how he devoted his time to his research at the factory or country during that period, even if he is a genius.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, it might be more rewarding for us to reflect on decisions we made in the past than to watch the Chinese media making big waves in hailing the “great achievements that our Party has made”.

This article is dedicated to hundreds of millions of Chinese people who died without dignity in the past six decades.