A Mind of Independence, A Life of Simplicity

    Late at night on December 3, 2004, I was surfing on the Internet when three Chinese characters, namely Shiing Shen Chern, flashed across the screen…… I took out the photo of Mr. Chern and me taken in my interview with him two years ago, and placed it right on the top middle of my bookshelf. On the wall behind Mr. Chern and me hangs a round-face quartz clock reading 13 minutes 4 seconds past one o’clock, April 5, 2002 -- a precise record of that very moment.

    The rain started to fall that day in my sleep, and it was still pouring down splish- splash at noon with the sky being shrouded in a curtain of mist. The rain drenched everything: the streets, vehicles, trees, buildings along the streets and umbrellas held up here and there. The rain apparently swept away much of the restlessness and hustle and bustle of the city as well as the restless fluff that would have otherwise been floating in the air.

    We took a taxi to Nankai University from Tianjin West Railway Station, a journey that would take us about twenty to thirty minutes. The taxi driver, a middle-aged man with a rugged complexion and expressive features, was very friendly and helpful. He had a real big voice, chatting with us constantly in typical Tianjin dialect as he drove along. We talked to him a bit about Mr. Chern, which brought an immediate response from him: “I’ve heard of him, a great mathematician, absolutely incredible! Anyone in Tianjin with a bit of common sense would have surely heard of him. What a great talent! ” The driver kept talking with an air of pride, looking around out of the car from time to time, and searching for a flower shop along the street. He meant to drop us for a bouquet of flowers to be presented to Mr. Chern.

    The moment we were seated at the home of Mr. Chern, he said to us quite unexpectedly: “I deserve your congratulations, chaps!” Seeing that we were somewhat puzzled about what he said, Mr. Chern paused for a second and explained: He had suffered from thrombosis and had been hospitalized for two months not long before. On the morning of that very day of our visit, he went to the hospital for another checkup, which showed no sign of thrombosis whatsoever in his body. We finally got to know what had happened and responded immediately by saying that it was indeed good news and something to be happy about. With a smug expression on his face, Mr. Chern was as happy as a child and said again and again: “Of course, of course!”