I am a melon in the North American wilderness.
In recent days, the news that "Fudan prodigy has been living on the streets of the United States for 16 years" has shocked the Chinese community.
After the incident was exposed, it attracted attention from all walks of life.
In the past few days, as the investigation deepens,
More truths have been revealed, which is embarrassing.
01
Lao Zhu, a Chinese living in New York,
On New Year's Day, he met a homeless man (referred to as "Brother Lang" on the street),
The other party is unkempt, hungry and cold, very pitiful,
When the eyes of the two met, Brother Lang actually spoke Chinese.
见同胞沦落至此，老朱于心不忍，
So I invited him to a hot meal,
During the chat, Brother Lang said that he had been wandering in the United States for 16 years.
Then he reported himself to his home, and his identity was amazing.
Brother Lang claimed that his surname was Sun, and his hometown was Jiangyin, Jiangsu.
Since childhood, he has been a well-known "prodigy",
In 1985, at the age of 15, he was admitted to the "Fudan University Junior Class" with excellent results, and was the top student in the college entrance examination that year.
Even in the "Fudan Youth Class", which is full of talents, Brother Lang is also a "god-like" existence, and his teachers and classmates have a good reputation.
At the age of 19, Brother Lang graduated from Fudan.
Talented, high-spirited.
He was favored by Nobel laureate Tsung-Dao Lee in physics and won a valuable place in the "Sino-US Joint Admission Physics Graduate Program" to go to the United States for further study.
Also studying in the United States through this program is Zhang Chaoyang, the former president of Sohu, who went to study in the United States three times earlier than Sun Weidong.
After going to the United States, Brother Lang studied all the way to his doctoral graduation with a full scholarship.
Published 32 SCI papers in 7 years,
And most of them are published in professional top journals.
After graduating from the City University of New York with a Ph.D. in 1997,
I stayed at the university for two years to do "post-doctoral" research......
He was photographed with faculty and students after being admitted to an American university
This series of information directly burned Lao Zhu's CPU.
Later, it was confirmed by the American Alumni Association of Fudan University and other parties:
Brother Lang's identity is true,
He is the famous "physics prodigy" Sun Weidong.
A top student in the college entrance examination, a "Fudan prodigy", and a doctor from a famous school,
Why did you fall to 16 years of asking for food and sleeping on the street?
What happened in the years since?
02
If there is no follow-up, Brother Lang is a rising star in physics, and it is no problem to return to China to be a university professor.
But the turning point in life is sometimes just a thought.
In 1999, Brother Lang's postdoctoral fellow came out,
It stands to reason that if you study abroad with a full scholarship through a national program, you should serve your motherland after completing your studies.
But Brother Lang "lived" his mind......
After all, there was a huge disparity in national strength between China and the United States back then, and their living conditions were not the same.
So he chose:
Continue to stay in the United States and become American.
To this end, he later gave up years of physics research and switched to computer finance.
After all, compared to physics,
Computer finance is easier to find a job and make more money.
At the beginning of life it seemed to be as he wished,
After graduating, he successfully landed a job as a programmer on Wall Street, earning $130,000-$140,000 a year at the time.
Later, he received a green card and became a U.S. citizen.
With U.S. citizenship, a decent income,
He went on to make a home in the United States.
may be because he has been engaged in research work for many years, Brother Lang is not very sociable, and the Chinese circle is relatively narrow after all, and he has not been able to find a suitable partner for a while.
Until he met a Chinese woman in New York,
The other party is a single mother from the Northeast who took her daughter to New York alone to "beg for a living", and has no permanent residence status in the United States.
In the beginning, it was said that women were "very good" to him,
The two have lived together for nearly 8 years.
But after getting the green card, the woman turned her face.
In 2007, the financial crisis swept the world, and Wall Street wailed.
The business is in a recession, Brother Lang is unemployed,
At the same time, his wife also resolutely left him......
In an instant, the double blow of feelings and career,
The once proud son of heaven collapsed.
After the divorce, Brother Lang had serious mental problems.
Not only was he depressed, but he also suffered from "auditory hallucinations" and was unable to continue working.
Uprooted and alone,
When encountering major setbacks, I found myself alone.
During those days, Brother Lang also thought about returning to China,
But the house leak happened to rain overnight, because the security was not good,
His remaining $30,000 was also stolen.
"Later, the economy was not good, I couldn't find a job, I couldn't pay the rent. ”
He began a difficult life of wandering,
Sleep on benches in summer and subway stations in winter,
With the help of a nearby church, I could barely get some food and drink......
Eventually, the condition did not improve.
The psychological burden is also getting heavier and heavier,
gradually became a member of the army of homeless people on the streets of New York,
Every day is muddy, eating and waiting for death,
This wandering is 16 years......
03
In the past 30 years, Brother Lang has only returned home once.
It was 2003, when he was in high spirits.
Since then, he has lost contact with his family.
When his old father died, he couldn't fulfill his filial piety,
All these years, his brother and mother have been looking for him,
"I thought he was doing confidential work abroad, but I didn't expect him to fall into this ......"
Now Brother Lang's old mother is nearly 80 years old and in poor health.
The younger brother came forward to respond, saying,
I learned about my brother's experience through the media.
On the day of the encounter on the street, I learned that Brother Lang had nowhere to go,
Lao Zhu found a place for him to settle down temporarily.
This may be the first time in so many years that Brother Lang, who has tasted the bitter cold of life, feels the kindness and warmth from his compatriots.
The next morning, he choked up and begged Lao Zhu,
"I don't know if I can contact the alumni association to help,
However, I really want to go back to China. ”
The wandering encounter exploded in Jiangyin.
On January 5, Mr. Liu, a junior high school classmate, said,
"He used to have a cheerful personality, studied Xi well, and loved sports, which was a 'myth' that has been passed down in the mouth of teachers for more than ten years.
He scored 628 out of 640 in the high school entrance examination that year.
I didn't expect to see a video of him living on the streets of the United States decades later, and I was very embarrassed......"
In 2017, the 4th class of the 87th class of Nanjing Middle School held a 30th anniversary reunion, and the classmates seemed to have heard that he had lost contact with him in the United States, and even his family could not be contacted.
But at that time, I only knew that he was not doing well, but I didn't expect it to be so bad.
Some classmates said that they couldn't help but cry after seeing his video,
The fall of the former genius is embarrassing.
Brother Lang is on the street
On the morning of January 5, an American alumnus of Fudan University said:
Alumni in New York are actively looking for ways to help him.
There are also former students of the "Fudan Youth Class" who said:
is willing to donate 10,000 yuan to take him back to China for the elderly.
However, the past cannot be traced,
The once high-spirited teenager no longer has light in his eyes.
Melon said
An American polling company did a survey that said:
Do you think it is difficult to realize the "American dream" now?
The results show that as many as 75% of Americans believe that the current "American dream" has become a "pipe dream", and it is basically impossible to get rich and marry Bai Fumei.
I often have friends in China ask me: Do you think the United States is good?
Truth be told, it's a difficult question to answer.
In the eyes of a thousand people, there are a thousand Hamlets, and naturally, in the eyes of a thousand people, there are a thousand Americas.
The real America is far more complicated than you think.
It has a very attractive side, such as the fact that there is always toilet paper in the public toilets, many vacant seats in the subway are reserved for those in need, parking spaces for the disabled are located closest to the entrance, and most strangers are very kind......
But the longer you stay, the more you will find that it is not easy for people to see the bad.
For example, racial discrimination.
A friend who has been in the United States for more than ten years said:
Americans seem to be civilized to people, but there's always something cold in civilization that keeps you out. It's like air, you can't see it, but you can feel it.
Another example is the shooting.
Just a few days before the start of 2024, mass school shootings broke out in the United States.
The shooting itself is a hidden problem of social division.
A friend of mine, she was chatting with me with tears in her eyes:
"I miss the United States of the past, inclusive, free, but the United States can never go back to the past......"
At present, more and more Chinese are keen to immigrate or send their children to study abroad. Some domestic media are also fooling everyone every day: sell the house in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and immigrate!
Yes, I admit that China has a lot of problems,
But after immigration, do you go to heaven?
Last year, I interviewed 15 Chinese immigrants to the United States for many years.
They told me from personal experience,
America is neither heaven nor hell,
Light and darkness coexist, roses and guns coexist.
The United States is not a hell of "deep water", let alone a "paradise" in the mouth of migrant agents, just a smoky ordinary world.
Many Chinese parents do not hesitate to sell iron and spend their generations of savings to send their children to study abroad, but in reality, it is equally difficult to achieve class leaps abroad.
Putting aside the hypocrisy and shamelessness of politicians,
The vast majority of ordinary people are just running around for three meals a day, worrying about the family, and looking forward to living in peace in the work day after day.
That's all.
Let's talk about what the motherland is.
Someone has described that
"Motherland, it's the old locust tree that still stands at the entrance of the village after you stomp your feet for a long time.
Although it was eaten by insects with many holes, and struck by lightning several branches,
However, it has shaded you with swaying leaves, and smoothed your scars with tenderness. ”
No matter how far you go, the motherland will always be the deepest concern in your heart.
The mark she left on you will never be erased.
Not long ago, I met a boy who was studying in the United States, and he was very adamant that he would go back to serve his country after completing his studies.
"There are indeed a lot of problems in China, just like a watch with some faults, many people throw it away and want to get a new one.
But I just want to be a watch repairer, because I believe that with the hard work of everyone, the watch will not only be repaired, but it will also last longer and better!"
I think that the future world will need such "watch repairers" with an international vision and great pride.
I hope that my children,
In the future, I will be able to be such a "watch repairer",
Back in China, or anywhere on earth,
To build instead of destroy, to heal rather than divide,
To love and embrace, the red dawn and the future.
I wrote more than 3,000 words today, thank you for reading, and salute all of you who are walking on the road, with hope and a lighthouse ahead!