Literary Master 1983

Chapter 387 Remembering Mr. Watson

The nightly news featured Watson's debate.

The host introduced that Pfizer Pharmaceuticals is preparing to invest in and build a factory in China, in the same location mentioned by Ai Feng of the Economic Daily, Dalian.

"The 21st century belongs to biotechnology. In cutting-edge Western research papers, those related to biology account for more than 60% of all research. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer values ​​the potential of the Chinese market, and their move to build factories in my country has enabled our country to rapidly acquire world-class pharmaceutical production lines..."

There are many places in the world to invest in. Pfizer was the world's largest pharmaceutical company at the time, and it was buying up everything in the world. So why did it choose to invest in China?

In the news footage, Pfizer's vice president gave the reason: "Because we love China!"

Yu Qie certainly didn't believe this reason, but fortunately, at the end of the news report, the vice president told two honest things:
"Coca-Cola, Volkswagen, Wang Laboratories... are all examples of successful joint ventures, and we will achieve the same success."

Another quote is: "Chinese people are highly intelligent, as Professor James Watson said. This is a land worth investing in for the long term, and our companies should grow together with China."

The screen then transitioned to a heated debate between Watson and Clark, with a line of very small text in the bottom right corner—according to relevant US media reports. This US media outlet is CNN.

If it weren't for the fact that our TV is a Panasonic large-screen TV, we probably wouldn't have been able to see those English words clearly!

Yu Qie immediately understood that Watson must have made a big splash in the debate two weeks earlier, otherwise CCTV would not have broadcast Watson's live footage.

The next day, he had just finished class when Ai Feng from the Economic Daily invited Yu Qie to write an article. Ai Feng hoped that Yu Qie, as the person involved, could write a popular science news article for readers.

Because Pfizer's investment in China is a major event.

People today truly believe that the 21st century is the century of biology. The few people who held up the "Hello" banner in front of Tiananmen Square back then were Yenching University students majoring in biology.

Ai Feng said excitedly, "Pfizer's initial investment alone reached 70 million US dollars! I interviewed the vice president, Powers, in private, and he bluntly said that Pfizer could invest in India or China... but ultimately chose to invest in China."

Yu asked urgently, "Is it because Pfizer thinks Chinese people are smart?"

Ai Feng retorted, "What do you mean by 'just because of this one reason'? Isn't that enough? There are so many people in the Third World, who will get investment first?"

"You have no right to speak without investigation. Let me answer you in a while," Yu said.

He quickly obtained the information and figured out the whole story.

It turns out that Pfizer has been aggressively acquiring companies and engaging in price wars in recent decades, establishing branches in major countries and even setting up factories in places like Puerto Rico and Panama. However, Pfizer has failed to drastically reduce costs and has spent too much money on expansion while neglecting research and development. As a result, it is now clearly lagging behind its competitors Merck and Eli Lilly.

Who knew Pfizer had such a history!

Then, the success of Volkswagen and Wang Laboratories inspired Pfizer. Wang Laboratories, in particular, managed to survive by relying on its high-quality, low-priced products to retain enterprise users.

If the technology is slightly outdated, but the cost is incredibly low, wouldn't that crush the competitors?

Penicillin was invented by Pfizer, and on the battlefield, one dose of penicillin was once equivalent to a small gold bar. However, after the patent expired, Pfizer's profits plummeted. Today, half of the world's penicillin is produced by Chinese pharmaceutical companies, and the price is only one-sixtieth of Pfizer's, which Pfizer cannot compete with at all.

Pfizer realized that the reason it had lost before was because it wasn't cheap enough.

If it were incredibly cheap, the genuine penicillin from the joint venture factory would be cheaper than the pirated version, and it would have outlasted its competitors long ago. How could it have ended up in its current state?
When you're sleepy, a pillow is just what you need. Watson, a top lecturer at Cold Spring Harbor, was constantly talking about how intelligent the Chinese are, and how coming to China is like picking up money. He said that now they're doing low-end production, but in the future they'll be setting up R&D centers, and the Chinese can provide a one-stop service. Pfizer was convinced and eventually went for it.

Capital doesn't care about this or that; they dare to invest in Panama, but they don't dare to go to Africa.

They know all too well which places have people who cannot be trained into qualified workers.

Yu was overjoyed when he learned this:
Surprisingly, Watson has actually helped China's industrial development.

Yu Qie also got his hands on the transcript of Larry King's live broadcast. After reading it, he exclaimed that Watson was a true hero who would step up when needed! So, Yu Qie wrote a news article in his office entitled "In Memory of Mr. Watson": "China's pharmaceutical industry, yesterday's stagnant pool, tomorrow's land of hope."

"Watson, the director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, was an American of Scottish and Irish descent. He was not born with much of a sense of national identity and only believed in the truths he observed. This habit helped him win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 62. His early success also made him suffer more hardships than others."

"Because he always speaks recklessly and doesn't care about the impact... Watson has attracted a lot of criticism, and he has recently fallen on hard times, being repeatedly 'interrogated' in the spotlight. But we can say that, so far, Watson has been sincere with us."

"Therefore, I am here to deeply cherish the memory of Comrade Watson."

While recounting the entry of pharmaceutical giants into China, Yu Qie fully recalled Watson, praising him as an old friend of the Chinese people. Yu Qie intentionally omitted Watson's abstract achievements, focusing instead on his advocacy for the Chinese.

After he finished writing it, he looked at it and thought: Watson is like a saint.

Putting aside his discrimination, arrogance, and womanizing... all of that aside, Watson truly is the second best Canadian doctor. He could have easily never spoken up for the Chinese, but he did so without hesitation, and to the very limit of what he could do.

He didn't simply have a dislike for Black people; Watson genuinely liked Chinese people.

This article, along with Ai Feng's previous interview with Yu Qie, was published in the Economic Daily News. The response was excellent; readers loved Watson's honesty, and this issue even sold more copies than usual.

A photo of Watson wearing a red scarf appeared in the daily newspaper at the Affiliated Primary School in Beijing; he looked like one of those experts sent to aid China. Many people remembered this "Grandpa Watson" with his red scarf.

From then on, Watson's reputation as a villain in China was established. He was a man who didn't concern himself with trifles but had a clear understanding of right and wrong. No matter how the world changes, this place will remember his kindness, and Yu Qie will remember it too.
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But this is not enough.

Yu Qie wanted to give Watson a short story, which would alleviate Watson's situation to some extent.

Therefore, such a novel must be understandable to Americans while also incorporating educational elements. After much deliberation, Yu Qie concluded that science fiction was the most suitable genre.

What should I write?

He couldn't come up with a good idea for the time being, so he spent his days scratching his head in the economics department office. He read about Watson's achievements every day, visited Chinese biologists like Cao Tianqing who had contact with Watson... and obtained a thick stack of interview papers. When Ai Feng came to Yenching University and saw them, he laughed and said, "Watson likes to be famous and likes to be respected! The more famous someone is, the happier he is!"

"If he knew you were willing to write a second novel just for him, he'd probably be so happy he'd announce it to the whole world!"

"No way! You're exaggerating my abilities," Yu Qie said.

Yu Qie felt a little ashamed: in fact, this was the first novel he had written for Watson.

Watson is a cold-faced but warm-hearted guy. With just one basic attack from Yu Qie, Watson had already used up his ultimate.

Late September. The complete interview program was obtained from Hong Kong; it was a videotape. Yu Qie put the tape into a VCR and watched the live show at home.

Television is still more impactful than a written script.

In the video, Watson is initially in high spirits: he believes he has completely proven his conjecture!

He then appeared frustrated, because he could already foresee the damage these words would ultimately do to his career. Watson's expression showed this struggle.

But Watson didn't choose to shut up. Instead, at the end of the live show, in an almost self-destructive manner, he pointed out that Clark also harbored prejudice against Black people. This subtly proved two things:

Intelligence is indeed important. At least for Clark, intelligence is more direct than any talent.

Another point is that Clark's reaction shows he knew that Black people had lower intelligence and Chinese people had higher intelligence—meaning this was already a well-known "secret" in academia. It's just that before Watson, no one dared to expose this fact.

But this is actually disgusting.

Because Western academics always believe that black people have good endurance and explosive power, while white people have great arm strength and are good swimmers... They talk about it extensively and produce many papers to prove this, and indirectly smear Asians for lacking vigorous strength and not being good at strenuous exercise. However, when it comes to the most crucial aspect of human intelligence, these people do not admit it.

Zhang Li and Chen Xiaoxu both watched the show. Having studied English for over two years, they barely understood the gist of it, and felt a little sorry for Watson in the end.

Zhang Li said, "Watson is quite touching. Why would a foreign professor like him insist on speaking up for the Chinese?"

Yu Qie said, "Watson doesn't have feelings for the Chinese; he only has feelings for highly intelligent people. He feels that these are his kind. He doesn't really have a homeland. He may consider highly intelligent people as his hometown people. He admires the strong, and the Chinese happen to belong to the highly intelligent group."

Chen Xiaoxu said, "That actually means having feelings for the Chinese people, because his conditions always hold true."

Yu Qie was taken aback. Chen Xiaoxu was right!
She added, "I saw intelligence test questions on the market today, and I took them myself and got over 120 points. I don't know what kind of score Watson mentioned, over 80 points? I'm afraid you can't find a single healthy person like that in the entire bookstore."

A score of over 120 is considered quite high, almost a genius. There are probably one or two students that smart in a class.

"Are you making the preschool or children's group?"

Yu Qie said this because Zhang Li did a test for the preschool group and found out that she was a genius... She had made such a joke before.

Upon hearing this, Chen Xiaoxu became a little less confident, and she brought the book to show Yu Qie.

The book cover reads "Revised Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale for China," and it turns out to be a genuine copy!
The intelligence test questions Lin Yifu used for his research in rural areas were from this very set of questions. It was a domestically produced intelligence test developed by Professor Gong Yaoxian of Hunan Medical College (later Xiangya Medical College), but it didn't receive much attention at first.

Gong Yaoxian's set of domestically developed intelligence test questions only won a second prize in a local provincial science and technology competition at the time. It gradually gained attention afterward, reaching its peak in the 1990s and early 2000s with the rise of the International Mathematical Olympiad.

"Xiao Xu, it seems you're a genius! All the points you got were real!"

Chen Xiaoxu pouted, unable to hide her delight: "Of course!"

Zhang Li immediately exclaimed that she wanted to take the test again—she spent two hours completing the test and found that her result was exactly the same as Chen Xiaoxu's.

The two women embraced each other excitedly: We are truly destined to be together!
That night, Yu Qie and Zhang Li slept together. Zhang Li had the large bed all to herself, while Yu Qie, after she became pregnant, found a small bed and placed it next to her. In the middle of the night, Zhang Li started experiencing morning sickness and suddenly felt nauseous.

At first, Yu Qie served her, but then Chen Xiaoxu was disturbed and came to fetch water and towels. It took a long time for Zhang Li's stomach to stop.

Chen Xiaoxu said regretfully, "I shouldn't have done that set of questions! I made Zhang Li do the questions on the table for a full two hours!"

Zhang Li comforted her: "I also wanted to know if I was smart! The test I did before was fake. In the past few months, the test questions on the market have been updated... I will definitely find it and retest."

Yu asked her, "Zhang Li, why do you insist on knowing how high your intelligence is?"

"Because I heard that a child's intelligence is mainly inherited from the mother. Brother Yu, you are so smart and a great writer... I'm afraid this child will be born stupid. If he is, then he will definitely be a burden to me."

Chen Xiaoxu listened intently, her eyes glazed over, and remained silent: she had also thought of this.

Back then, Lu Xun's child couldn't write essays, which made the whole class laugh and cry, becoming a joke—but at least Lu Xun's child later studied physics at Yenching University, and was very talented in engineering.

Even so, people still feel that Lu Xun's child's achievements are still too low, and not as good as Lu Xun's.

If Yu Qie's child isn't even slightly smart, Zhang Li will probably be worried sick in the future.

Intelligence is inherited equally by both parents; both parents contribute, and there are many random factors involved... But outsiders don't think that way. They only think that it's not Yu Qie's fault; either the mother is wrong, or the child is wrong.

Yu Qie waved his hand: He understood even more how malicious Watson's words to Clark were.

No wonder Clark, who is not religious, immediately broke down in his defenses; this is something that even Nobel laureates are helpless to solve.

(End of this chapter)