The economic lives of American-trained Chinese scientists after they returned to China in the 1950s:A case study of Huang Pao-tung and Feng Zhiliu

This article is a case study of Huang Pao-tung(1921-2005), who was a polymer chemist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his wife, Feng Zhiliu(1921-2015), who was a polymer physicist. The couple studied in America and returned to China in the 1950s. Based on an analysis of first-hand data from the two scientists' archives, diaries and memoirs, which recorded their economic lives after they returned, I found as follows:(1) their income after returning to China was about one-fifth of their income in the United States;(2) their income channel was narrow(there was no mechanism for wage increases, and their wages were unchanged for 25 years);(3) the main expenditure of their family was on food, and that proportion increased year by year; and(4) no taxes, low rents, free medical care and other benefits helped to reduce their cost of living in China. The importance of their profession as scientists and the government's advocacy of scholars returning home brought them relatively good treatment, and their economic benefits and living standard were several times better than those of other ordinary social classes. However, this kind of preferential treatment was dependent on many other things, which caused them to lose independence and autonomy.