In the autumn of 1997, as Hong Kong returned to the motherland, renowned physicist Professor Yang Chen-ning, fresh from undergoing heart bypass surgery, attended the honorary degree conferment ceremony at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).
This moment was eight years in the making.
CUHK had initially offered Yang an Honorary Doctor of Science degree years earlier, but he respectfully declined—not because he did not value the honor, but because he refused to bow to the British ceremonial traditions. At the time, the ceremony required the recipient to bow to a British chancellor and undergo a ritual involving a light tap on the head with a wooden staff.
While academic accolades are significant, Yang believed that national dignity outweighed everything else.
In 1997, with the university's chancellor now a Chinese scholar, Yang gladly accepted the honorary degree. Though he was still recovering from surgery, he insisted on attending the ceremony in person to mark this symbolic moment.
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