The Taste of Freedom

Mathematician, control theorist, and retired Harvard professor, Dr. Larry Yu-Chi Ho moved around a lot as a child, following his Nationalist Army (Guomindang) father to various places in the interior of China during WWII. (See post one.) At the end of the war, Larry and his families escaped to Taiwan. When he graduated high school at age 15, he came across the Pacific to attend MIT.  He met many helping hands along the way. (See post two and three.) He graduated, found a research position in one of the first-ever washing machine companies, and won the immigration lottery. (See post four.) He returned to school, this time to Harvard where he was one of a handful of students.( See post Five.) In 2001, Larry tried to retire. Instead he was asked to provide guidance to the MIT of China. (See post Six.)

Having grown up in China til he was a teenager, and then returned to China once a year for the past seventeen, I asked if he’d noticed any changes in attitudes towards the U.S.

“Oh, yeah. A lot of change. But, basically, the U.S. is still the promised land for most educated Chinese.  They all want to come here. About 70% of Chinese who study here remain in the U.S. despite lots of attractive offers from China should people return.  The majority of people—once you taste the freedom of the United States, it’s something very difficult to give up.” 

What freedom is particularly important?

“As one Chinese official once very perceptively told me, ‘In the U.S. you control 80% of your life. The reverse is true in China.’ Even though you may be doing very well in China, the government basically controls 80% of your life—what you can and cannot do. So, once you taste this kind of freedom it’s very hard to give up.”

(To be continued. Next: China's Numerous Challenges.)