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.) With one foot in each country, I asked Larry what he saw as some of the challenges. He mentioned that while China is trying to woo students home, many of them remain in the U.S. to enjoy freedom. (See post Seven and Eight.) In the U.S., he sees that we have several issues: a mountain of debt, a mountain of garbage, and a refusal to move into the future. (See post Nine.) While he suggests the U.S. work cooperatively with China, he doesn't see China as Super Power...at least not in the near future. (See post Ten.)
Larry has a blog which describes many of his teachings/experiences throughout the years, and reaches millions of people across the globe. I asked what advice he would give today's students from China?
His first thought was that they might be better off back in China. “Foreign-educated Chinese students are very well treated. They have all kinds of opportunities to rise to the top."
"In China, you don’t
have a glass ceiling to deal with. In the U.S., they will never rise up to become the President of
the U.S. or president of Amazon, or so forth. There is a glass ceiling, which
is even admitted by the U.S. Labor Department data.”
For those who decide to stay, he says, “Practice and live
the American dream.”
(With gratitude, this concludes this interview.)
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