Tribute — a love letter to the work

1:33:46Rebellion was a way for um the Chinese to fight back on the imperialists. There was an alliance of eight nations. It was the US, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Britain, France, Austria, Hungary. So all of the guys who were fighting during World War II, all of these imperial imperialist nations, they came together to subdue the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. They asked for reparations because that always works. [laughter] And something like hundreds of millions of ounces of silver, which is an astronomical thing at the time, from China in in reparations for the Boxer Rebellion. 10

1:34:28years after that rebellion, the US Congress passed a law saying that part of the US spoils from all of that silver was going to go back to China to fund academia and scholarships. So they actually funded Singua University in Beijing. They started Singua University which is where his dad was employed where he sort of got his start in academia. They also funded scholarships which is the same scholarship program that he came to the US in. So it was this full circle sort of thing that Yang was involved with. He became very emotional but that's what he meant when

1:35:09it's in harmony and in conflict right because in conflict that's what started it but in harmony he comes to the United States. He goes to Chicago, earns his degree um under Edward Teller, goes on to be one of the great great physicists of the 20th century. After his retirement from Stonybrook, he goes back to China. He goes back to his alma mater, Singua University, becomes the honorary director of the newly established Institute for Advanced Study over there. Mhm. >> He really goes back and returns and pours a lot of effort into advancing fundamental disciplines and cultivating

1:35:51a new generation of scientific talent in China. And a lot of people give him a lot of credit for where China is in fundamental physics today. I was going to say this is what we talked about in a previous episode. In this like in the US, we still have this probably outdated conception around scientific research in China as all being basically driven by this great power war between the US and China. And so there's an incentive to basically fudge the numbers in order to project this idea that they're making