李政道杨振宁遭遇冷处理六十多年前中国人第一次获诺奖

Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning were Given the Cold Shoulder The Chinese won the Nobel Prize for the first time more than 60 years ago

李政道、杨振宁1957年因质疑宇称守恒定律获得诺贝尔物理学奖时,仍持有中国国籍,因而他们是最早获得诺贝尔奖的中国人。许多中国人误认为他们是美籍华人,同中国政府在当时及后来的冷处理(低调报道)有关。通过回顾中国政府的新闻报道在1957年是如何处理李、杨的科学成就和获得诺贝尔物理学奖这件事,分析了这种处理方式背后的原因:冷战中海峡两岸以及中美之间的对峙;苏联的人造卫星发射成功;争取杨振宁回国失败,同时也揭示了1957年的诺贝尔授奖典礼上没有中国政府的代表出席的原因。

When Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang shared the Nobel prize in physics for their questioning of the law of parity conservation in 1957,they were actually Chinese citizens,not yet American citizens,which made them the first Chinese to ever win a Nobel.Many Chinese,however,have held the impression that they were then already American citizens(though of Chinese descent).This widespread misperception can be traced to the cold(low-key)official response to the news of the prize by the Chinese government at the time.This paper examines the Chinese official media reports first on the news of Lee and Yang’s scientific breakthrough,and then on that of their Nobel prize.It highlights the following factors in shaping such reporting:the tensions across the Taiwan Strait and between China and the United States in the context of the Cold War;the launching of the Soviet satellite Sputnik;and the failure to persuade Yang to return to China that year.It also reveals the reason for the absence of any representative of the Chinese government at the Nobel ceremony.