"Winning the Nobel Prize does not mean a person's personality is perfect," Chiang Tsai-chien (江才健), biographer of Symmetry and Beauty -- Yang Chen-ning (楊振寧), told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Chiang was commenting on a falling out between the first two Chinese Nobel laureates, Yang and Lee Tsung-dao (
Yang's biography was launched in conjunction with his 80th birthday and was released at the end of October.
The 80-year-old Yang landed in Taipei last Monday for a four-day visit to join a seminar hosted by Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University.
When attending the press conference for the release of his biography last Monday, Yang avoided talking about his relationship with Lee, his former research partner until 1962.
"It is not necessary for me to reconcile with Lee," Yang said responding to a question about whether he wished to try to mend their relationship.
Chiang's biography of Yang gave detailed account of the two men's friendship and their later difficulties.
"I don't think there is anything more I can say about our disagreements. In my 1983 book Selected Papers 1945-1980 with Commentary I wrote about our close partnership and the pains brought about by our breakup," Yang said.
Yang said the issue is still attracting attention. "You may have read my 1983 book and done some research on the subject," Yang said.
Chiang, a friend of Yang's and an acquaintance of Lee's, began writing the biography four years ago after obtaining Yang's consent.
Chiang noted at the end of the biography that he thought about not releasing the book because of the material concerning the differences between the researchers.
"There are many interpretations on the quarrels and discord between Yang and Lee. But the final word on the story has yet to come out," Chiang wrote.
The biographer said the biggest stumbling block when writing the book was his inability to get information from Lee.
Chiang and Lee had a dispute over an American science program in 1992 that Lee wanted Taiwan to participate in. "The event was very complicated. Anyhow, my relationship with Lee was spoiled as a result," Chiang wrote.
The author said he wrote Lee a letter before writing Yang's biography, hoping Lee might offer some insight into their relationship. "Of course he didn't reply," Chiang said.
In an interview with the Taipei Times yesterday, Chiang said he considered the rift between the two a natural course of events.
"Good friends quarrel. Husbands and wives quarrel. It is simply inevitable that people quarrel," Chiang said.
"It is stupid to ask whether Yang and Lee might resolve their differences with each other. Why should they?" Chiang said.
"Neither Yang nor Lee denied that an article that appeared in the New Yorker magazine on May 12, 1962, was one of the major reasons for their breakup," cited the author.
The article, "A Question of Parity," was written by physicist Jeremy Bernstein. After the article's publication, Yang and Lee had a long talk on April 18, 1962.
According to the biography, both men were concerned about how their names appeared in the article.
Yang felt that he was responsible for the lion's share of the work that netted the two men the Nobel prize, but the article suggested that Lee was the primary researcher.
"Yang didn't deny that he cared very much about how Bernstein handled the names in the article."
Yang's meeting with Lee on April 18 was a very emotional scene," Chiang wrote.
During Yang's visit, he said a number of books and articles have speculated about his breakup with Lee. "They are all fiction," he said.
"But Chiang's book is true. He interviewed my family and friends," Yang said.
Yang was born in 1922. He and his wife Tu Chih-li (
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
The Taipei District Court today ruled to extend the incommunicado detention of former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇) for two more months as part of an ongoing corruption trial. Codefendants in the case — real-estate tycoon Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京) and Ko's former mayoral office head Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗) — were granted bail of NT$100 million (US$3.4 million) and NT$20 million respectively. Sheen and Lee would also be barred from leaving the country for eight months and prohibited from contact with, harassing, threatening or inquiring after the case with codefendants or witnesses. The two would also be
RSS