Father and I

Father (K. C. Yang (楊克純), 1896–1973) was a high school teacher in Anqing (安慶) in 1922 when I was born in Hefei (合肥). Anqing was then also called Huaining (懷寧). Father gave me the name Chen Ning, of which Chen was the name of my generation in our family, and Ning was derived from Huaining. Before I was one year old Father won an Anhui (安徽) Provincial Fellowship for studying in the USA. We had a family picture (Fig. 1) taken in the courtyard outside our bedroom a few days before he left home. Father had on the traditional robe and coat, standing stiff and erect. He had probably up to that point never worn a western suit. Two years later he sent a picture (Fig. 2) to Mother from the University of Chicago, in which his attire and bearing had both entered the twentieth century. Father was a handsome man. The exuberance and optimism of his youth were clearly captured in this photograph.