Charles Kao wins the physics Nobel

City Woman Post
October 7, 2009

Charles K. Kao (高锟), a pioneer in fiber-optic communications, was named one of three laureates for this year’s Nobel Prize in physics.

Kao was born in Shanghai and now resides in Hong Kong, after doing his groundbreaking work in Britain and the United States in the 1960s. His China connections put him on the front page of many of today’s newspapers.

The photo that ran in City Woman Post (都市女报) shows Kao and his wife in 2004 at Princeton University, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate. The headline: “Ethnic Chinese scientist Charles Kao wins the Nobel Prize for physics.”

Not everyone feels that this is front-page material: Kao may have been born in China, but his work was done overseas and he does not hold Chinese citizenship. On his popular Sina microblog, media personality Huang Jianxiang discussed the mainland media’s fixation on the Chinese heritage of Nobel laureates in a series of increasingly sarcastic updates:

8:08: “Chinese scientist Charles Kao and two Americans win the Nobel Prize for physics.” If you look carefully at the resume of this Mr. Gao, you’ll discover that this news boils down to one word: masturbation. When the mainland can bring up a Nobel laureate born and bred here, then we’ll talk.

8:30: A comment from the previous post on the Nobel laureate: Huang, that’s not right, or have you never masturbated before? The man says he’s ethnic Chinese. Ah, ever since you left your beloved football you’ve become more and more of an angry youth….(4 minutes ago) It’s perfectly normal for an individual to masturbate, but for an entire people to masturbate frequently is a frightening thing. Our neighbors, for example, “The Great XX Nation.” Compared to their genetic dialectic, we “Chinese” are pretty much the pot calling the kettle black.

8:34: Actually, if you read some of the comments you’ll understand why we can’t cultivate our own Nobel laureates. Environment determines what gets produced. Actors are tailored to their audience, and a society gets the football team it deserves. The quality of education determines the quality of students, scholars, experts, and comments. I’m not “angry” in the slightest, and all I’d say is that I think that mentality is shit. If Charles Kao doesn’t have Hong Kong residency that makes immigration unnecessary, then he’s probably an American already.

8:39: The most abundant product of our education system is not Nobel laureates – those pointless things, let India have them. We produce huge quantities of Patriot pissers – excuse me, missiles. And then they all spurt off at once. Let me remind you that The Founding of a Republic you just watched also had lots of talented, upstanding patriotic “ethnic Chinese” foreign citizens. You don’t need to tell me that even if America gave you a green card you wouldn’t take it because you’re all patriotic.

8:47: According to our “ethnic Chinese”-style masturbation, when Americans, Canadians, Australians, or certain South Americans win the Nobel, more than a few countries in the world will stand up and say: This is an “ethnic X”! He’s one of us! Then they’d look eight or eighty generations back to ascertain that the ancestors of the laureate were from that country, when they immigrated, which country and tribe their descendants married into, and finally determine the laureate’s blood makeup, only to discover the United Nations.