(1) In Ms. Nasar's article with Mr. Gruber, she labeled both Professors Shing-Tung Yau and Shiing-Shen Chern as "the Chinese mathematician". In fact, both are U.S. citizens born in China. It is important to note that only mathematicians of Chinese heritage were labeled this way in the article. This labeling is in contrary to the common practice of using the term "Chinese American mathematician" in the mainstream news media in both the U.S. and China. (In Chinese media, Yau and Chern are called "mei ji hua ren"-U.S. citizen of Chinese heritage.) Ms. Nasar went to length to describe the contributions of Yau and Chern to the scientific development in China but neglected to mention that both were awarded this nation's highest scientific honor, the National Medal of Science. The subliminal message is that both Yau and Chern work only to advance the Chinese interest. Such bigotry is nothing new in this country: Jewish people have been subject to such stereotype for a long time.
(2) While there were extensive discussions on original ideas in mathematics in this 14-page long article, not a single sentence, as far as I know, associated mathematicians of Chinese heritage to originality. Even the originality of Yau's Fields Medal work was downplayed. This article promotes the false and harmful stereotypes that mathematicians of Chinese heritage are "technical" but not "original". (See an open letter to Ms. Nasar for more detail on this point.)
(3) Seven mathematicians of Chinese heritage were named in the article: Yau, Chern, Gang Tian, Huai-Dong Cao, Xi-Ping Zhu, Kefeng Liu, Bong H. Lian (implicitly, as the coauthor of Liu and Yau). While there was only minimal coverage on Chern, all six others were alleged, one way or another, to involve in plagiary and/or claiming undeserved credits. More importantly, in the article, no other mathematicians but only those of Chinese heritage were alleged to involve of such unethical practices. This is biased, prejudiced, and, in fact, racist. To illustrate this point, substitute all Chinese names by Jewish names, China by Israel, and Chinese by Jewish. This article would then have been easily recognized as anti-Semitic.
(4) This is not the first time Ms. Nasar spews anti-Chinese venom. In her article Best Business Book 2003: Globalization, she promoted the book World on Fire by Amy Chua. Here is what Ms. Nasar wrote:
Chua compares the wealthy Chinese, like her aunt, who dominate the markets of many Asian countries to the successful Jews of Europe in the 1920s. "In the Philippines, millions of Filipinos work for Chinese; almost no
Chinese work for Filipinos. The Chinese dominate industry and society at every level.... When foreign investors do business in the Philippines they deal almost exclusively with Chinese." When she was 8 years old, she recalls,
she stumbled into the servant quarters in her aunt's villa: "My family's houseboys, gardeners, and chauffeurs... were sleeping on mats on a dirt floor. The place smelled of sweat and urine. I was horrified."
This is bigotry, pure and simple. It is now well established that Ms. Nasar distorted other people's statements to fit her own agenda. ("As it appears in her article, she has purposefully distorted my statement and made it unforgivably misleading." ---Dan Stroock of MIT.) There were also controversies regarding Ms. Nasar's A Beautiful Mind about the anti-Semitic statements that she attributed to Mr. John Nash. (See, for example, An Anti-Semitic Mind? by Tom Tugent at The Jewish Journal.)
Slashdot Mirror
(1) In Ms. Nasar's article with Mr. Gruber, she labeled both Professors Shing-Tung Yau and Shiing-Shen Chern as "the Chinese mathematician". In fact, both are U.S. citizens born in China. It is important to note that only mathematicians of Chinese heritage were labeled this way in the article. This labeling is in contrary to the common practice of using the term "Chinese American mathematician" in the mainstream news media in both the U.S. and China. (In Chinese media, Yau and Chern are called "mei ji hua ren"-U.S. citizen of Chinese heritage.) Ms. Nasar went to length to describe the contributions of Yau and Chern to the scientific development in China but neglected to mention that both were awarded this nation's highest scientific honor, the National Medal of Science. The subliminal message is that both Yau and Chern work only to advance the Chinese interest. Such bigotry is nothing new in this country: Jewish people have been subject to such stereotype for a long time. (2) While there were extensive discussions on original ideas in mathematics in this 14-page long article, not a single sentence, as far as I know, associated mathematicians of Chinese heritage to originality. Even the originality of Yau's Fields Medal work was downplayed. This article promotes the false and harmful stereotypes that mathematicians of Chinese heritage are "technical" but not "original". (See an open letter to Ms. Nasar for more detail on this point.) (3) Seven mathematicians of Chinese heritage were named in the article: Yau, Chern, Gang Tian, Huai-Dong Cao, Xi-Ping Zhu, Kefeng Liu, Bong H. Lian (implicitly, as the coauthor of Liu and Yau). While there was only minimal coverage on Chern, all six others were alleged, one way or another, to involve in plagiary and/or claiming undeserved credits. More importantly, in the article, no other mathematicians but only those of Chinese heritage were alleged to involve of such unethical practices. This is biased, prejudiced, and, in fact, racist. To illustrate this point, substitute all Chinese names by Jewish names, China by Israel, and Chinese by Jewish. This article would then have been easily recognized as anti-Semitic. (4) This is not the first time Ms. Nasar spews anti-Chinese venom. In her article Best Business Book 2003: Globalization, she promoted the book World on Fire by Amy Chua. Here is what Ms. Nasar wrote:
This is bigotry, pure and simple. It is now well established that Ms. Nasar distorted other people's statements to fit her own agenda. ("As it appears in her article, she has purposefully distorted my statement and made it unforgivably misleading." ---Dan Stroock of MIT.) There were also controversies regarding Ms. Nasar's A Beautiful Mind about the anti-Semitic statements that she attributed to Mr. John Nash. (See, for example, An Anti-Semitic Mind? by Tom Tugent at The Jewish Journal.)