In addition to his research, Yang served as a professor at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University and held the position of honorary dean at the Institute for Advanced Study within the institution.
Why Chen Ning Yang denounce his American citizenship
Yang Zhenning relinquished his US citizenship, which he had obtained in 1964, and became a citizen of the People’s Republic of China in 2015, returning to the country where he grew up. The Chinese Academy of Sciences had to create special rules to transfer his membership from foreign to domestic, a first in its history, as per a report by thechinaproject.
Speaking to China Daily in 2017 about the decision, Yang said, “My late father’s blood runs in my veins. Chinese culture runs in my veins.” He added, “I became a naturalized American citizen on March 23, 1964. I considered this decision for a long time, and it was a very painful one. In a 1983 book, I wrote that my father never forgave me for giving up my Chinese citizenship until his death.”
He further explained, “On April 1, 2015, I renounced my US citizenship. This was not an easy decision. The United States is a beautiful country that has given me wonderful opportunities for scientific research. I am grateful to the United States. Furthermore, I know that many of my American friends would not approve of my relinquishing my citizenship.”
Who is Chen Ning Yang?
Born in 1922 in Anhui, China, Chen Ning Yang grew up on Tsinghua University’s campus, where his father taught mathematics. As a teenager, he told his parents, “One day, I want to win the Nobel Prize,” quotes BBC, a goal he achieved in 1957 at age 35, alongside Tsung-Dao Lee, for their work on the law of parity. The Nobel committee praised their “penetrating investigation… which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles.”
Yang earned his science degree from National Southwest Associated University in 1942 and a master’s from Tsinghua University. After the Sino-Japanese War, he moved to the U.S. on a fellowship to study at the University of Chicago under physicist Enrico Fermi.
Over his prolific career, Yang made significant contributions to physics, particularly in statistical mechanics and symmetry principles. He received the Albert Einstein Commemorative Award in 1957 and an honorary doctorate from Princeton in 1958.
Yang married his first wife, Chih Li Tu, in 1950, with whom he had three children. After her passing in 2003, he married Weng Fan, over 50 years his junior, whom he met in 1995 and called his “final blessing from God.”
