Text: Li Sihui, Tian Jun, Li Jiayan
He is a Ph.D. student at China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), dedicated to earthquake research, and recently published a paper in the top academic journal Science.
She is a post-00s Turkish girl who has loved Chinese culture since she was a child, and is now a master's student at the School of Foreign Chinese of Central China Normal University, with excellent grades.
Wherever the two young people go, it is a beautiful scenery. Not long ago, when they "officially announced" the good news that they were ready to get engaged in the circle of friends, they received the blessings of many people.
This spring, in a small café on the shore of East Lake in Wuhan, the two walked in hand in hand, sat down, and told their romantic love story to China Science News.
Meng Jiannan and Xiao Ai
Chinese PhD students retrograde Turkey
On February 6, 2023, a deafening roar exploded from the depths of the earth.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck eastern Turkey, plunging the region into endless darkness. Just nine hours after the first earthquake, another 7.5 magnitude aftershock occurred.
Thousands of miles away in Wuhan, China, 24-year-old Turkish student Ai Xiayu (nicknamed "Xiao Ai" in China) opened her eyes in horror: "Four hours before the earthquake, I heard a huge explosion in my dream, and I was very uneasy when I woke up. ”
According to media reports, the earthquake killed about 60,000 people and injured 120,000 in Turkey and Syria, and tens of thousands of houses were reduced to ruins in an instant. It was one of the strongest earthquakes experienced in the region in at least a century and the deadliest earthquake in Turkey in more than 100 years.
Knowing that her country had been hit by a devastating earthquake and many of her compatriots had been displaced, Xiao Ai burst into tears. Looking at his girlfriend's anxious face, Meng Jiannan, a doctoral student at China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), immediately applied to go to Turkey to collect post-earthquake surface data, study the damage of the earthquake, and make some scientific contributions to the follow-up disaster relief and earthquake prevention.
Because the situation in the earthquake area is too complicated and it is difficult to guarantee personal safety, not only the school is very hesitant, but even the professor of the Turkish joint training unit advised him not to go.
The China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) held several meetings to discuss it, and finally approved Meng Jiannan's application with the support of his mentor, Tim Koski, a foreign professor at the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan). Within 10 days after the earthquake, Meng Jiannan traveled from many places and finally arrived in the earthquake area.
According to the training plan, Meng Jiannan was supposed to graduate in the summer of 2023, and going to Turkey would inevitably delay the progress, which meant that his graduation would be delayed by a year. But earthquakes are his research direction, and he can't turn a blind eye. What's more, Turkey is still Xiao Ai's hometown, where the two met.
In 2021, Meng Jiannan was arranged by the school to go to a university in Turkey for joint training. On Christmas Day, he had just arrived in Ankara (the capital of Turkey) when he got lost in a taxi, and there was a traffic jam on the road, and he was late for a long time.
"I'm sorry I'm late. As soon as they met, Meng Jiannan panted and apologized to the blonde girl in front of him.
Xiao Ai, a Turkish girl, has been fond of Chinese culture since she was a child, and since she was 10 years old, she has also studied Chinese martial arts for two years. She has always wanted to meet a Chinese student and learn Chinese from him. She found Meng Jiannan through a friend.
"When I first met him, I didn't have a good impression of him. "The winter in Ankara was very cold, and I waited for him for a long time while standing outside in my skirt. Fortunately, he was very sincere and shared a lot of knowledge related to China. ”
In 2022, Meng Jiannan returned to Wuhan to continue his doctoral studies after completing his joint training in Turkey. Xiao Ai decided to study in Chinese mainland – both to learn more about the Chinese culture she had loved since she was a child, and for the Chinese boy who became more and more attractive to her.
After some twists and turns, Xiao Ai applied for a scholarship for language study students in Wuhan University. On October 27, 2022, the couple gathered in Wuhan.
Meng Jiannan and Xiao Ai
Significant results have been achieved in areas of dangerous earthquakes
When Meng Jiannan arrived in Turkey again, the earthquake zone was still in danger of aftershocks, with loess, collapsed houses, and buried bodies everywhere. As water and food became luxuries, there were riots and even guns stolen.
Moreover, no one can guarantee that there will be no more aftershocks of magnitude 7 or higher.
In Turkey, Meng Jiannan saw too much sadness. He saw a woman sitting on the rubble, expressionless, with glazed eyes, just muttering "Home is gone, family is gone, nothing is left". Only then did he realize that a person could not cry when he was extremely sad.
He has also seen a rare smile in the disaster area - some children can still find rare joy in suffering, they love to play football, Meng Jiannan played with them, and gave these children chocolates and biscuits he brought.
In the process of data collection, Meng Jiannan once encountered the problem of being unable to take off due to the inconsistency of the purchase and use of the drone, so he used tin foil to shield the GPS module of the drone to take off. One time at a time, never tire of it.
Without a map to design the flight route, he drove back and forth across the land torn apart by the earthquake, letting the drone follow his trajectory and fly and measure. The machine was damaged, he had to run far away to repair it, and he suffered a serious car accident, but fortunately there were no casualties.
Rushing to the epicenter of the epicenter proved to be essential – he left after completing a month-long site visit, and within days there were floods in Turkey. Rain and snow have fallen on the land, washing away the traces of surface fractures, which are important scientific evidence.
At the site, Meng Jiannan conducted a systematic field measurement of the surface displacement of the Dead Sea Fault and the East Anatolian Fault caused by the seismic event, and compared with the satellite data, the accuracy of this study reached the centimeter level, which is a very timely and high-precision post-earthquake surface record.
They found that the location of the largest surface damage in this earthquake event was 47.5 kilometers away from the epicenter, and there was no significant surface rupture at the epicenter of the earthquake, indicating that the seismic activity and the degree of surface damage were not simply distanced. This is in contrast to the previously accepted belief that the epicenter is the location of the greatest damage on the surface.
His first-hand information and research conclusions have aroused great interest among the editors of Science magazine. The latter took the initiative to triple the number of pages published in the study, from four to eight editions.
Meng Jiannan collects data in the earthquake area of Turkey
The truth of adversity affects transnational affection
Friends around me only know that Meng Jiannan went to the earthquake area in Turkey and came to a very important research conclusion. What he didn't know was the hardships of his day trekking around and sleeping with aftershocks at night. And a Turkish girl studying in China remembers this.
The time difference between China and Turkey is about 5 hours, and Xiao Ai often waits until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, just to have a video call with Meng Jiannan for more than ten minutes to see if his loved one is injured and what the situation in the earthquake area in Turkey is now. For a month, she slept only four or five hours a day.
"Although I am very worried about his safety, I am also very proud because he was born and died for my country, and he helped my fellow citizens in the most dangerous places. I was very touched when he went to Turkey alone as a Chinese researcher. Xiao Ai told China Science News, "It was at that time that I decided to marry this person." ”
After the Spring Festival this year, on February 28, Xiao Ai and Meng Jiannan announced their intention to get engaged after completing relevant legal procedures in Wuhan.
In Turkey, there is a saying called "right person", which means the right person. Xiao Ai told China Science News: "My mother told me that she thinks Meng Jiannan is the right person. ”
Fate is really a wonderful thing! After they received the certificate, Xiao Ai dug out her diary of her girlhood, in which she wrote:
I hope to find a boyfriend in the future who has a different cultural background, but has an understanding and contact with Turkish culture, has a small smile and eyes, likes sports, has a humorous and responsible personality, has a cheerful personality, and preferably is an academic boyfriend.
"This long list of demands may seem difficult to achieve. After being with Meng Jiannan, I was surprised to find that he met all the conditions!"
Xiao Ai and Meng Jiannan
Paper Links:
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adj3770
*All photos in this article are provided by the interviewee