Thanks for that link. Wish I could read Mandarin Chinese so I could read the original too.

Clearly a flawed person. Not sure why he blew off his family so hardcore for so many years. Too bad to hear he was arrogant as a kid too, although a lot of smart kids are. Some of them turn out to be Peter Thiel, luckily this guy just wanted to work on math.

Anyway, I wish he had been better to his parents. On the other hand, he needed that big breakthrough to save his life as a mathematician: until that point, he was just an adjunct lecturer with no stability at all. Life is weird and complicated and we don't have full control of the choices we make, some choices can seem really hard to some people. I'm not excusing his behavior toward his family but I would be interested to know why he made that choice.

What the article doesn't say is the reason why Yitang would not come back visit his family. Not sure if it is his own decision (makes sense as he lost connection with his family for many years) or some political reason (China doesn't allow him to go home).