THE STORY OF DR. SUN WEIDONG

     A sad story (with a potentially happy ending) gained attention in the Chinese Media recently and has since gained national news coverage in that country. It concerns Dr. Sun Weidong, who was found living on the streets on New York City and interviewed by some Chinese visitors who posted his story online. Here is the story:

     "The 54-year-old man Sun Weidong, with grey hair and sparse teeth, tells a blogger that he is from Jiangyin City of Jiangsu Province, China, and that he has lived in the United States for more than 30 years. He graduated from Fudan with a bachelor's degree in physics, and then acquired masters and doctoral degrees in the US. He said that he had worked as a post-doctoral researcher for two years and then a software engineer at a Wall Street company for another two years with an annual pay of US$130,000 to US$140,000. He is now an American citizen. He said he became homeless in 2007 and moved to Brooklyn. He said he first slept in Internet cafes in the evening and later on the streets...

   "After the blogger posted the video online, some former classmates identified him as Sun. The Fudan Alumni Association of USA in New York released a statement on Saturday, confirming Sun is a Fudan graduate. It said a volunteer team has been established to help him. According to the association, he had been visited on Thursday, and moved into a temporary residence on Friday with help from other Fudan alumni and people from Jiangyin.

   "Jiupai reported that the classmates said Sun was an outstanding student. He had studied at Nanjing Senior High School, the most famous high school in Jiangyin, for only one year and was admitted into Fudan via a program for gifted teenagers in 1985. He went to study in the US with a scholarship via the China-U.S. Physics Examination and Application program...It's said that Sun had published several papers in top science journals. {Note: he published 32 of them, according to sources}. Sun expressed his wishes to come back to China, according to Jiupai."

    The Global Times, a Chinese mainstream outlet, asked the question that our verminous Media would never ask: "Where is US’ help to marginalized groups when a physicist is homeless?" Good question. The editorial points out a few other details:

    "What attracted the most attention is how a genius ended up as a hobo, something practically unheard of in China. According to reports, it has much to do with problems in his personal life - divorce, gambling, and mental disorder. Granted, personal factors are crucial in one's life trajectory. The US' insufficient assistance to marginal people also plays a part when Sun lost his entire life due to a few unexpected life changes...Some observers noted that to some extent, Sun's experience can be viewed as a typical American story. He went to the US, became an American, faced some difficulties and gave up on himself. This is so American. And the US society abandoned him, until Fudan Alumni Association found him and offered help." 

    There is a lot of truth to this: while quite a number of America's vagrants are addicts and criminals, Sun is certainly not the only such case: as the article also observes: "Sun's story also shows that people have misunderstandings about the US. It is often said that the US values talents. Well, not those studying basic sciences, except for very rare extremely outstanding individuals. Many American dreams have ended in failure. In a city like New York, it is very likely to encounter taxi drivers with doctorate degrees in politics, history or even science."

    Now, of course, Americans are conditioned to sneer at anything coming from the Chinese Media, but I would defy anyone to dispute that their argument isn't true. Lest anyone also who is inclined to dismiss the story as a propaganda stunt, it isn't the first time that such stories have happened. About five years ago, a Chinese student at a US university disappeared after being kidnapped by one of the numerous perverts our exceptional society allows to run loose. The Chinese Embassy involved itself in the case and even flew the girl's parents to the US at government expense to talk to the police. Sadly, she was found murdered. Even sadder, Obama turned down China's request to extradite the killer and let him face their justice system. 

    The story highlights a fundamental difference in our two cultures. There was a time in the United States when a genius ending up as a hobo was unheard of here too. It happened during the Great Depression, and that led to reforms. Today, however, American citizens are considered commodities, or human capital, and their value is only centered upon how much they money they can make for somebody else. 

    The story also is illustrative of the fact that our social failures are rooted in a lack of spiritual values; or to put it more concretely, our lack of character. Once again, we've been shown up by a Communist country and exposed as their ethical inferiors. This ought to cause Americans to blush with shame, because there are many of our own people who either are in Sun's situation or barely avoiding it---and have been for a long time. 

    But, like empathy and valuing merit, shame is something that we no longer feel. When we lost those qualities, our sense of community died with it, and we can today speak of winners and losers in a rigged game where merit or even simple humanity plays no part. This has essentially become a predatory society where winning at all costs and securing power and profit are the prime directives; success comes with gaming the system and the wider community is simply expendable.