Qian Song, is an astronomer at the Yunnan Astronomy Observatory in Kunming, China. In the process of the RPO experiment, he was known to other internet participants as "laomi," which is both his internet screen name and his actual nickname amongst his close associates. During the RPO experiment, and in the days following it, Lao Mi was the person who handled much of the English language translation. For example, members of the local TV Press Corps came to YNAO to conduct interviews of the local participants, and also interviewed the persons at distant sites via internet chat connections.
The interviewer, Miss Li, would pose her questions, and Lao Mi would type his English translations for the English-speaking participants to answer. Apparently several relatively unknown westerners got nation-wide TV coverage in China that day, thanks to the translations of our good friend, Qian Song.
Since the time of the RPO experiment, Qian Song has been working hard on his Ph.D. dissertation, dividing his time between his experiments and other assignments at the YNAO and conducting research at the University in Beijing. Lao Mi is the only single man among the astronomers involved in the RPO experiment.
As we were typing messages back and forth, while Miss Li was conducting her chatline interviews, we engaged in a little good-natured teasing, when one of the other men said Laomi had commented on how attractive a person Miss Li was. Subsequently, we have not let him have much rest from this friendly teasing, and we ask him about girlfriends, has he found "Miss Right," what are his plans for an engagement and later marriage, etc. All in good fun, of course!
Several years later, when Dr. Kaifan Ji was in the US as a visiting scholar at the University of California, Santa Cruz (Lick Observatory laboratories), we followed through on a promise made during the RPO experiment. Bigfella (e.g., Doug Paulson) had suggested a tour of the so-called "Grand Circle" of National Parks and Monuments in the Utah/Colorado/NewMexico/Arizona "Four Corners" area, and the two of them finalized plans and made the trip together in September, 1999. As they traveled around, they saw many tour busses full of Asian tourists, mostly Japanese, but Dr. Ji also had the opportunity to speak in Chinese to several parties we encountered on this trip. Somewhere along the way, Bigfella, now re-dubbed "Big Uncle" by the young astronomers, decided that something needed to be done about Lao Mi's continued single situation. "He hasn't got a steady girlfriend or fiance, so I guess we will have to do it the old-fashioned way, and arrange a marriage for him."
After the decision was made, we saw many of the same tour busses, with the same passengers we had seen before, as well as a few other groups. Doug attempted to get pictures for Lao Mi to review and choose from, as part of this mail-order bride operation.
Some of the first photographs were taken
at the wrong time of day,
so all we got were silhouettes of the young ladies.
Finally, I sent Dr. Ji down to an overlook at the Grand Canyon to point out likely prospects,
When some of the subjects learned why we were taking the pictures, they couldn't seem to get away fast enough, and the pictures of them were blurred.
We decided that we had better speak with the leader of the group, a real obi-san, who went by the name of "Tex" Nakamura.
Here, he's discussing the idea with a couple of the young women for whom he was responsible on the Japanese language US National Parks tour.
These young ladies, were very nice, but on closer inspection, they were not interested.
They already had heard about such American institutions as "dates," "college guys," and "freedom of choice."
Finally, I suggested to Dr. Ji that he should not describe Lao Mi so accurately, but put the emphasis on the fact that he is a professional astronomer, a very good cook, and likes to clean up and do various chores around the house. That helped. Some of the likely candidates actually stood still enough that we got fairly good pictures of them.
However, it soon became clear that some that we thought would be a good match, and who were accompanied by an obi-san, from whom we hoped to ask permissions, and make arrangements for a formal marriage contract, already had boyfriends along on their vacation trip.
If Lao Mi really prefers brunettes, then this young woman from Switzerland might fill the bill? Unfortunately, she spoke only German, French, and Italian, so we could not make any arrangements with her.
We almost decided this young woman might be "Miss Right" for Lao Mi, but she seemed a bit young. We decided to limit the list to women over 20, and she was only 19.
Finally, we located the perfect one for Lao Mi.
However, I ran out of film, and when we got back from buying another roll, with our marriage contract ready to have her sign, she had got back on the bus, and it was headed for Los Angeles Airport, to take her back home to Kyoto.
The way things look now, Qian Song may soon have his chance to try doing some active courting at the Grand Canyon himself sometime in the future. He is looking forward to an opportunity to do Post-Doctoral research at an observatory in the United States before long, perhaps in Montana or at Kitt Observatory in Arizona.
Of course, who knows what the future will bring? And it has taken me so long to do this page, that the joke is perhaps now too stale, and maybe Laomi has a fiance that he has not told me about?
To see where we got our picture of Qian Song, go back to the page of pictures of Kaifan Ji, where you will find Laomi having a home-cooked meal prepared by Dr. Ji's wife, Shuping.
In a more recent update, our mutual friend, Kaifan Ji, sent me this picture taken from the base of the Statue of Liberty, with the New York City skyline, featuring the twin towers of the World Trade Center, that were destroyed September 11, 2001 by terrorists who flew two jet airliners into the buildings, with great loss of life. Both Dr. Ji and our friend, Qian Song expressed great dismay at this tragedy. I told Dr. Ji that this picture of him, wearing the sweatshirt he purchased while he and I were at the Grand Canyon, taking the pictures that appear on this page, will now be a piece of history. The towers will no longer be included in that skyline. Here is a larger size and better quality copy of this photo.
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