In his letter to PHYSICS TODAY (August 2010, page 12), Man Hong Yung expounded the reasons why many overseas Chinese scholars are hesitant to be wooed back to China despite considerable government incentives. Those who have returned are called sea turtles, and Yung explained well the origin of that nickname. The various reasons he gives for Chinese scholars’ staying abroad inevitably lead to one conclusion: The working environment in China is not as healthy as that in the West.
Yung’s observations from a physicist’s point of view are probably shared by many in other fields. I am sufficiently knowledgeable about the working environments in science and technology in China and in the West to allow myself some agreement with Yung. I received my PhD in engineering mechanics from the University of Michigan in 1965, during the Cultural Revolution. Although I have taught only in a US engineering school, most of my papers have been published in physics journals. Indeed, I was honored as a fellow by the American Physical Society before receiving similar recognition from two engineering societies.
One of my former postdoctoral researchers went back to China and founded a company that is prospering internationally. Two other former postdocs are quite successful in their academic careers in China. The rest of my former PhD students from China all chose to stay in the US. Their decisions were probably influenced by the reasons given by Yung.
I find it curious, though, that during the time when the People’s Republic of China was struggling to rise in the East, around 1945 to 1965, many overseas Chinese scholars chose to return home. Among the sea turtles of the period were the famous “three Qians,” as Premier Zhou Enlai called them. Qian Xuesen, after being detained by the US government for several years, finally returned to China, where he initiated and developed the Chinese space program. Qian Sanqiang returned from France to establish the Chinese nuclear program. Qian Weichang went back to develop modern mechanics and applied mathematics for China. He remained active in science and politics until his death this past summer at age 99. He was reported to have said that his first month’s salary after returning to China was just enough to buy a thermos but that he never regretted his return. Those and other earlier sea turtles have contributed greatly to the improvement of conditions in China today. A question remains: Since the economic and other material conditions in China then were much worse than today, what motivated the earlier sea turtles to go back to their homeland?
