Dear Mei, if you grudge me, please think of those starving workers who have been working painstakingly but received no pay at last. Then you will feel relieved.

Perhaps the real lesson of history is that by the time the east overtakes the west, it will no longer matter much that Newton, and not Mei, was the father of classical physics.

She said there had been strong evidence that Mei Xiang might be pregnant, but no one was sure.