In 1957, Yang Zhenning, who attended the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, received a letter from his father-in-law Du Yuming for the first time.
In the letter, Du Yuming first congratulated his son-in-law, and then reminded him that this honor belonged to the nation and not just to the individual. It's only a few words, but it means a lot. The letter was brought by Yang Zhenning's teacher in China, Zhang Wenyu, then director of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Yang Zhenning (second from left)
At that time, when he learned that Yang Zhenning had won the Nobel Prize, Premier Zhou Enlai immediately sent someone to inform Du Yuming, who was reforming at the Beijing War Criminals Management Office.
At the same time, Cao Xiuqing, Du Yuming's wife, who was far away in Taipei, was also summoned by Chiang Kai-shek for the first time.
Cao Xiuqing (first from left)
Because of the actual factors, Du Yuming, Cao Xiuqing, and Du Zhili, the eldest daughter of Yang Zhenning and Du at that time, could not be reunited in the three places. With Yang Zhenning's great achievements in the field of physics, his personal and his own research field is self-evidently important.
Before Zhang Wenyu went abroad to Stockholm, he went to the Beijing War Criminals Management Office to meet with Du Yuming. Zhang Wenyu hoped that Du Yuming would write a letter to Yang Zhenning as his father-in-law.
After Zhang Wenyu's brief introduction, Du Yuming knew what kind of work his son-in-law, whom he had never met, was engaged in, and he was very happy about his achievements.
At that time, Du Yuming, from being captured in the Huaihai battlefield in early 1949, had undergone 8 years of ideological transformation, and many of his ideas had changed greatly. In the depths of his heart, he naturally hoped that his daughter and son-in-law would come back as soon as possible.
After all, in addition to writing a letter to his daughter Du Zhili in 1956, he and his daughter have been separated for a full 10 years.
Ten years ago, in 1947, the Kuomintang and the Communists were engaged in a fierce battle on the battlefield. Du Zhili, who has not yet graduated from Peking Fu Jen University, still crossed the ocean to the United States. In this, there may be Du Yuming's consideration for his daughter's future and safety
Du Salute
However, the subsequent earth-shaking changes in China also caused Du Yuming's family to break into several pieces. He himself lived in Beijing for a long time after he was captured. His wife, Cao Xiuqing, took the rest of her children and went to Taiwan on the eve of the founding of New China.
Due to the feud between China and the United States in the 1950s, Du Yuming, who was in Beijing, did not know anything about his daughter's study and life in the United States for a long time.
In the third year of Du Zhili's trip to the United States, he met Yang Zhenning, a teacher who was studying at the Southwest United University Affiliated High School.
At that time, Yang Zhenning, who had just graduated from the University of Chicago, entered the Institute for Advanced Scholarship in Princeton, which is recognized as one of the highest academic institutions in the world for theoretical physics. Yang Zhenning is also the first Chinese professor in the institute.
Career is booming, and love is coming as promised. The encounter with Du Zhili in a foreign country, the two young people fell in love at first sight. Soon around 1950, Yang Zhenning and Du Zhili married in the United States.
Since New China had just been founded, the domestic situation had not yet completely calmed down, and the two men had not yet thought about when to go back.
Yang Zhenning began to think about his and his wife's future life, and he wanted to buy a house. However, in this matter, Yang Zhenning deeply felt the discrimination suffered by chinese in the United States.
He and his wife looked after a place and paid the deposit, but soon after, the real estate company said that it would return the deposit to him, implying that the house could not be sold to him.
Yang Zhenning was surprised and asked the real estate company why it did this. Who knows that the reply of the real estate company is that the rest of the customers who look at the house have heard that there is a Chinese bought a house here, so they have given up the reservation, and the company feels that Yang Zhenning's Chinese affect the business, so it is not going to sell the house to him.
An angry Yang Zhenning immediately found a lawyer and planned to fight a lawsuit with the real estate developer. However, the lawyer truthfully told Yang Zhenning that this lawsuit could not be won under any circumstances. There was no clause in the contract in this regard, and the lawyer asked Yang Zhenning to abandon it.
Although he was discriminated against in his life, Yang Zhenning's academic research went very smoothly, and that period was also his academic golden period.
However, even if there are more achievements in the career, it is difficult to resist homesickness. He and his wife think of their parents at home from time to time.
Yang Zhenning with his mother
In 1956, a family letter that had been sent several times to Du Zhili's hand. Looking at the familiar handwriting on the envelope, Du Zhili was already in tears. It was the first time she received a letter from her father, Du Yuming, in the United States, and since China and the United States had not established diplomatic relations, the delivery of this family letter must have gone through twists and turns.
Husband Yang Zhenning proposed that the day of receiving the letter be regarded as a family anniversary. On the same day, Du Zhili also wrote a letter to his mother in Taiwan.
Yang Zhenning and his wife
In 1957, Yang Zhenning took his wife and children to Europe. He was going to Sweden to receive the Nobel Prize, and before that he was going to give a short lecture in Geneva, Switzerland.
What Yang Zhenning did not expect was that he could be reunited with his father Yang Wuzhi in Geneva. The exciting scene when father and son separated for 12 years and met again, Yang Zhenning still remembers it many years later. It was also yang Zhenning's father, who saw his daughter-in-law and grandson for the first time.
Since Yang Zhenning only made a short stay in Geneva, even if there were endless partings between relatives, there was not so much time. On the occasion of parting, his father gave Yang Zhenning two words: Don't forget your dear eternal love every meal, and you should be grateful to the country for your life.
Yang Zhenning's family of three
Later, Yang Zhenning learned that the reunion with his father in Geneva was arranged by Premier Zhou Enlai himself.
In the second year of Yang Zhenning's Nobel Prize, his mother-in-law, Cao Xiuqing, came to Princeton from Taiwan. On this trip, she took Chiang Kai-shek's orders to mobilize Yang Zhenning to go to Taipei.
At that time, Cao Xiuqing still had deep doubts about the domestic mainland. It was not until December 1959, when Du Was given a pardon, that Cao Xiuqing's inner misgivings gradually dissipated. After another 3 years, she returned to China and was reunited with her husband.
During this period, Yang Zhenning's contact with his family was not interrupted. Not only did he receive letters from his father-in-law from China, but in 1962, Yang Zhenning was reunited in Geneva with his parents and younger brother Yang Zhenping. In 1964, the family met again in Hong Kong.
However, due to the fact that the relations between China and the United States have not yet been thawed, coupled with the nuclear physics research engaged in by Yang Zhenning, his return to China has not been completed.
In 1971, seven years after meeting his parents in Hong Kong, relations between China and the United States showed signs of loosening, and Yang Zhenning had the opportunity to return to China to visit his family.
That summer, Yang Zhenning took his family on a journey back to China. Since China and the United States did not establish diplomatic relations, Yang Zhenning could only return through France.
Zhou Enlai made special arrangements, but at the scene of visa processing, there was still a small episode. China and the United States do not recognize each other, Yang Zhenning cannot directly use his passport to apply for a visa, and another piece of paper with his photo and signature posted on it is the real visa he can return to China.
After 26 years of absence, when the pilot reported that the plane had entered Chinese airspace, Yang Zhenning's heart beat hard.
Yang Zhenning and Deng Jiaxian
Zhou Enlai, who was busy, specially arranged a meeting between Yang Zhenning and his family members. As a son-in-law, Yang Zhenning met his father-in-law Du Yuming for the first time, and during the banquet he called Du Yuming Mr. Du. Zhou Enlai, who was at the side, quickly corrected him: "You should call your father-in-law your father-in-law." So, everyone laughed in a relaxed atmosphere.
The reunion of the family after a long absence has drawn a perfect end to more than two decades of lovesickness.
In addition to reuniting with his family, after leaving the motherland for so many years, Yang Zhenning wants to see too many people. He deliberately made a long list of old friends, the first of which he wanted to see was his friend and classmate Deng Jiaxian.
After some visits, Yang Zhenning's homesickness for more than twenty years was overcome. The devastated country that left is now thriving.
From leaving to returning, just like when Yang Zhenning set off for the United States in Kunming in 1945, his father watched for more than an hour in the crowd. Even if the thin body is squeezed into the crowd so that Yang Zhenning can't find it, but his father is here, his home will always be here. No matter where the wanderer is, the call from the bottom of his heart never stops.