The Best Director

On UCLA’s south campus, as autumn set in, the lush green lawns gradually turned a bit yellowish, and some drifting leaves dotted the clean and beautiful campus pathways, while the comings and goings of the students filled the entire environment with the vibe of youth. A group of five or six students excitedly discovered the tall man approaching was none other than the amazing Yang and immediately crowded around him, chatting and laughing: “Yang, Yang! How are you? What brings you to UCLA?” “You look so COOL, this is the first time I’ve seen the real Amazing Yang!” “Feels so great!”

“Hi, dear pals, how’s the studying going?” Wang Yang looked at this group of delighted Asian students, asking with a smile as he walked, easily discerning that they were all of Chinese descent—not Korean or Japanese, whose appearances and the impressions they gave him were different, an ability he’d honed from childhood.

UCLA has a high proportion of Asian students, often reaching 30%-40%, with whites accounting for a bit over 30%, Latinos 15%, and African Americans 5%. Yet, the Asian population in California only makes up about 10% of the total population, so UCLA has a nickname: “University of Chinese and Lots of Asians.”

Of course, the proportion of Asian students at all of the prestigious universities across America is high, which seems quite natural. The policies in America’s higher education system that cater to minority groups have never included Asians; these benefits are only shared among Latino, African American, Native American, and other students, while Asians need even more outstanding applications.

Thinking back to his high school graduation, Wang Yang had also applied to UCLA and received an acceptance letter, but what followed is common knowledge: he ultimately chose USC, home to Robert Zemeckis, George Lucas, and Ron Howard, who famously dropped out because he felt he wasn’t learning enough… USC’s fierce cross-town rival.

USC’s Film and Television School and research institute are ranked number one in America, but its science departments are much weaker; UCLA’s College of Letters and Science, including disciplines such as physics, mathematics, and astronomy, are among the top in the nation, on par with MIT and CIT. This time, Wang Yang stepped into the science side of the UCLA campus specifically to visit the dual professor of physics and astronomy, David Saltzberg.

“We’re doing great! Just emptying out those scholarships,” a round-faced student with frameless glasses said casually, eliciting chuckles from the rest. A girl with short hair in jeans and full of interest pulled out paper and a pen from her backpack, saying, “The Amazing Yang, I want an autograph, I don’t want to miss out.” Wang Yang took it, said OK, and signed while walking, with a few youngsters trailing beside him. Another pimpled youth asked, “Yang, are you going to produce that TV series ‘The Big Bang Theory’? You mentioned it has scientific content, I’m a student of theoretical physics, will that be in it?”

He tried to explain, “Like, say, ‘string theory,’ you know one of the biggest problems in modern physics might be that the law of universal gravitation and quantum mechanics don’t align.” He gestured with his hands, “String theory is an attempt within the theory to solve this problem by replacing point particles with tiny vibrating strings and loops. Will ‘The Big Bang Theory’ include this kind of stuff?”

“Don’t start with your string theory…” the short-haired girl and another girl with ponytailed apple-shaped cheeks both had several black lines rising on their foreheads, who would throw some string theory into a situational comedy? The Amazing Yang isn’t a physicist! They, along with many classmates, had chatted idly about this topic and all agreed that “scientific content” must refer to those common knowledge science facts that appear in daily life, like “Can new and old batteries be mixed?” or “During sleep, can you place the cellphone by your bed?” They laughed as they supplemented this knowledge.

String theory? Let it stay in the research institutes. Just as they were thinking this, the now-autographed Wang Yang nodded and flashed his signature smile, “Indeed, I’m aware of string theory, and it’ll be included.” They all felt a jolt, stunned for a few seconds before they could react, string theory? He must be joking. Before they could think further, Wang Yang lamented, “Oh, for heaven’s sake, why does everyone associate me with movies and TV? Can’t there be something else?”

“Of course, there is! You and Jessica are getting married next January, right?” The short-haired girl asked with a smile, full of interest, while the apple-cheeked girl’s gossiping soul burst into flames, “This might be a bit personal but I really want to know! Amazing Yang, have you ever dated a Chinese girl?”

“Let’s stick to movies and TV,” Wang Yang spread his hands, not answering these relationship questions. The glasses-wearing student, unable to wait, asked, “One question, will ‘The Big Bang Theory’ have Chinese characters? We’re all fed up.” The short-haired girl nodded vigorously, “Yes, do something about it!” Wang Yang nodded silently, revealing no specific details, then suddenly asked, “What do you guys think a Chinese nerd is like?”

The students looked at each other with uncertain expressions, “I don’t know, humble? Introverted?” “Can’t drink? Can’t drive? Doesn’t attend parties?”… The apple-cheeked girl said admiringly, “I just knew you’re nothing like a nerd.”

“`

“Thank you, thank you, I’ll take that as a compliment! Hey, I’m off to see Professor David Saltzberg, so I’ll see you next time, bye!” Wang Yang waved his hand and quickened his pace towards the building ahead. The Chinese students watched him walk away before starting to laugh and step forward again, “He’s so cool!” “What’s he looking for David Saltzberg for? Does he actually have string theory?”…

Suddenly, another group of students, including both Asian and White, recognized Wang Yang and approached him with excitement, “Magical Yang! You’re at UCLA, is there a basketball game today? I don’t remember there being one!”

In an office that was not very spacious but very neat and elegant, there was a beautiful and vast nebula hanging on the wall, several rows of bookshelves crammed with thick books by the wall, and items such as a perpetual motion device and a globe on the metal-wood desk. Sitting behind the desk, Professor David Saltzberg asked with a strange smile, “Why would you come to me for a TV show?”

He was a middle-aged White man who had put on some weight, the chest under his shirt bulged like that of a woman; the hairline on his head was already gone, leaving only a ring of hair from the sides of his ears to the back of his head. However, he had a genial smile, a high and large nose, and he looked like someone easy to talk to and to get along with.

“Hmm.” Wang Yang rested his chin in his hand and stared at a whiteboard full of dense physical equations in the corner for a while, pretending to be serious, “You clearly haven’t considered that XX theory here, have you? Professor Saltzberg, you should apply XX theory, and you’ll find there will be a major breakthrough in your reasoning. Oh cute! It looks like you’re still in the era when Newton was just hit by an apple.”

Professor David Saltzberg’s mouth was slightly open, a look of astonishment on his face. XX theory? He asked in confusion, “Um, excuse me, what’s XX theory?”

“Haha! That’s why I came to you for the TV show, Professor Saltzberg!” Wang Yang spread his hands out and tapped on the whiteboard again, “I can’t make heads or tails of these, neither can Hollywood’s scriptwriters or set designers, let alone write or portray it. If that was a scene just now, we would need that whiteboard, we would need that line, we need a real physicist.”

He sat down in front of the desk, spun the perpetual motion device, and looked at David Saltzberg with a smile, “Help us fill in the blanks in the script clearly, whether it’s XX theory, XO theory, or XP theory.”

“I think I understand,” Saltzberg nodded as if he had an epiphany. He had never been involved in film or screenwriting consultation, but as a smart man with a high IQ, he caught on quickly. Saltzberg was born in 1967, received his Bachelor’s in Physics at Princeton University at 22, his PhD in Physics at the University of Chicago at 27, worked at the European Center for Nuclear Research from 1995 to 1997, and now at 36, he was a tenured professor at UCLA.

Usually, he taught classes to students, sometimes went to Antarctica to conduct research or launch scientific balloons; or he would go to Switzerland to work on the Large Hadron Collider at the European Center for Nuclear Research.

Even though he lived in Los Angeles, where almost anyone you asked would have a “friend of a friend of a friend” working in Hollywood, Saltzberg had indeed not had any contact with the entertainment industry. He questioned, “Are you saying to design the whiteboard’s equations to be outdated and flawed on purpose; then have another person point out the latest theory and mock him?” Wang Yang nodded with a smile, “Exactly! That’s what it was like just now.” Saltzberg frowned and said, “But I can’t write jokes!”

“No, no, you don’t need to write, we’ll write that part, you’ll just fill in the blanks, like a translator,” Wang Yang responded.

Wang Yang stopped fiddling with the perpetual motion device, pulled out a few pages of the temporary script from his pocket, and prepared to explain it thoroughly. He believed that David Saltzberg would be interested in this job and would do it well. According to the information in his brain, Saltzberg was the script consultant for the original version of “The Big Bang Theory,” and since he didn’t want to go to the trouble of finding someone else, the translator needed to have a sense of humor, compatibility, and inspiration. If he ended up with someone like Sheldon Cooper, he really didn’t know what might happen.

“You know, nearly all scripts that involve a specific field, be it a movie or TV series, have a script consultant (Fact-Checker), who is an expert in that field. Just like my movie ‘MIT-21-TEAM’.”

“`

Listening to him, David Saltzberg nodded and said, “I’ve seen it, people at Princeton used to count cards as well, but it had nothing to do with the physics department, so here I am in this office.” Wang Yang chuckled and said, “You call this not being able to tell a joke? I don’t think so. Anyway, ‘MIT-21-TEAM’ had Jeff Ma as a consultant, ‘Prison Break,’ ‘The Devil Wears Prada’… you know ‘CSI,’ ‘Emergency Room’ as well, the difference is that ‘The Big Bang Theory’ is in the scientific field, theoretical physics, applied physics, astronomy, mathematics…”

After taking a page of the script handed to him by Wang Yang, Saltzberg saw several scenes written on it, just like the previous “XX Theory,” each line of dialogue had some blank spaces with brackets saying: (Scientific content needed), he glanced over and saw the brackets for debates, some for narration, and some for scenes where characters were doing experiments, with demands to provide the corresponding experiments and names.

The brackets also had star symbols, with notes underneath saying “One star requires it to be understandable by most, it’s ‘first grade’ content.” “Two stars a few might understand, or get it after looking it up” “Three stars very few will understand, few will get it after a search” “Four stars no one but professionals will understand, very few will get it after looking it up” “Five stars meant to puzzle everyone, incomprehensible unless you are a professorial academic.”

Most of the script had one and two stars, Saltzberg only saw one three-star, but no four or five-star brackets.

“Professor Saltzberg, your job is to fill in the brackets, and sometimes you can make some modifications before and after as needed, but it has to conform to scientific knowledge and retain the original idea of the script,” Wang Yang said as he passed another page of the script, which had no brackets, and explained, “Not all scientific dialogue requires your input; sometimes we write it and you just help us check to ensure there are no errors or omissions, we wouldn’t want to be laughed at. That’s what a script consultant does.”

“Sounds like grading and making tests,” Saltzberg looked at the smiling Wang Yang and became quite interested, but he also had a concern, “Will it be very busy? I’m a working professor and sometimes participate in some research.”

Wang Yang shrugged, the busiest in sitcoms are the scriptwriters, and said earnestly, “It won’t be too hectic. Normally, we give you the script one month before each episode is filmed, and you return it to us within that month. In reality though, it’s one episode per week. Currently, we’re planning to give you the scripts for the first 12 episodes of the first season in December; we start filming in March, so you have quite a bit of time.”

“Your other job is to be on set when we film scenes with scientific content,” Wang Yang turned and pointed to the whiteboard with formulas behind him and smiled, “You need to oversee the set decorators arranging the scenes, providing the formulas on those whiteboards; if we’re setting up a laboratory scene, feel free to make suggestions to make everything seem more real; you’ll also look after the scientific dialogues of the characters. We film one episode per week, and we can accommodate if everyone’s schedules don’t align, as we have a full-season contract, offering a lot of flexibility.”

“I think I can handle it, but I’ve never done this kind of work before…” Saltzberg was still a bit hesitant, it was still possible to consider now, but once a contract was signed, he’d definitely have to do it. He frowned and said, “I need some time to think about it.”

Wang Yang said OK, but he didn’t want Saltzberg to think too long, as his own schedule was very tight, and he wanted to secure the script consultant today!

As for this office, when it came to who knew the most about physical science, who was more bookish, it was naturally an NCLA professor; but when it came to sweet-talking and inspiring others, no one within this school could beat a USC dropout, and the professor was very interested to begin with.

“Professor Saltzberg, I hope that when you consider, you know that ‘The Big Bang Theory’ will be an absolutely hilarious and entertaining series,” Wang Yang put his hands on the table and looked earnestly at David Saltzberg, “But what I really want to say is, this is a great opportunity for popular science education, not the usual milk, cell phones, batteries… this is string theory, the law of universal gravitation, quantum mechanics, Schrödinger’s cat, the Doppler effect! Professor, this is a scientific storm, a trend.”

Listening to this amazing director’s rhythmic and impassioned speech, Saltzberg felt his heart start to race with excitement like when he made a new discovery during an experiment.

“Believe me!” Wang Yang energetically spun the globe, turning it too quickly for the eye to make out the countries, and continued, “It will spark people’s interest in science, Schrödinger’s cats will become hot search terms on Yahoo and Google, the hottest! Do you have a blog? Your blog will suddenly get a lot more visitors, overnight everyone will be searching, seeking, thinking, and everyone will enjoy the fun and discussion that science brings.”

The fun of science, and blogging… Saltzberg felt his heartstrings plucked again. He heard Wang Yang’s voice suddenly increase in volume, “This is science popularization! This is contributing to science. Who knows how many people will have taken the path to studying and exploring natural sciences because they grew up watching ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ and will end up at UCLA, sitting in a classroom, listening to lectures by Professor David Saltzberg?” Saltzberg shifted in his seat a bit awkwardly.

“This series will turn scientists into superstars, it will bring them into the world of ordinary people. They won’t just be oil paintings or statues, not just Nobel Prize winners whose names are unclear, they will be lovable people.”

“Here, Professor, give it a try!” Wang Yang took a page of the fill-in-the-blank script and pointed to a bracket, urging Saltzberg, “Right here, now try to fill it in.” Saltzberg looked at the bracket uncertainly and said, “Strange quantum phenomena?” Wang Yang laughed loudly, snapped his fingers crisply in approval, and said, “What else? Cool! Professor, I know you’re an applied physicist, and you make many novel and brave attempts. That’s what applied physics is about, isn’t it?”

Wang Yang spread his hands and frowned, “So why not try being a screenplay consultant, being the person who brings science to ten million, twenty million American viewers, to one hundred million, two hundred million audiences worldwide? If not now, then when?” He clapped his hands together with a smack, speaking earnestly, “Professor, I hope you’ll consider these things when you’re thinking about it.”

“Hmm…” David Saltzberg couldn’t help but take a deep breath. Interested, available, and well compensated, he could also participate in this brewing new scientific storm. If not now, then when? Even though he knew this young man was stirring him up, he was still willing to be stirred, feeling a kind of heat coursing through him, as if he were listening to a master in the field of physics discussing his latest paper…

It was really, cool! Saltzberg reached out to spin the globe and nodded emphatically, “I’ve made up my mind, I’m in!”

“Wow! Congratulations to you, congratulations to me.” Wang Yang immediately broke into a happy smile. A screenplay consultant is a very important member of the scriptwriting team, especially for his current situation where the team needs to design certain scientific aspects from the start. Wang Yang extended his right hand and shook hands with Saltzberg, smiling, “Professor, we have our first meeting of the creative writing team in a few days, and you need to come.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, I’ve finished all my lectures for this week.” David Saltzberg nodded, his chubby face also breaking into a smile. Wang Yang packed up the few pages of the script, got up, and smiled, “I’d really like to take a look at the physics labs at UCLA, is that possible?” Saltzberg also stood up, made a welcoming gesture, and said cheerily, “Of course, Director, let me show you something USC doesn’t have…”

After leaving UCLA and being busy all day, it wasn’t until dusk that Wang Yang drove back to his cozy home. With a sigh, he sank into the soft sofa, tossing his keys onto the coffee table with a snap. On the other side, Danny already wagged his tail and rushed over, enthusiastically licking his palm. Closing his eyes, he mustered the energy to shout, “Jessica, I’m home, are you there?”

“Yang, I’m making dinner!” Jessica’s voice came from the direction of the dining room kitchen, seemingly accompanied by some delicious aroma. Wang Yang kept his eyes closed and continued to rest until Danny tired of licking and walked away. Only then did he shake his head, get up, and moved to the fragrant kitchen, where Jessica, dressed in casual home clothes, was busy in front of country-style cabinets. He went over and hugged her waist from behind, “Hey, sweetheart.”

He sniffed hard at the stir-fried meat on the stove below, it really smelled great, and whispered in her ear with a laugh, “They’re not from Mr. Zhou’s restaurant outside, are they?” Jessica immediately flashed a toothy smile, her eyes brimming with joy. As she wielded the spatula, she laughed proudly, “Yes! I’m intentionally making it taste a bit bad, so it tastes like I made it.”

“You’re cunning.” Wang Yang leaned his head against hers, and as Jessica looked up at him, she could feel a certain weariness in him. She felt a pang of heartache. Even though she fully supported his enthusiasm, she also worried that he would exhaust himself. She kissed him on the cheek, and reached up with her left hand, which bore an engagement ring, to touch his head and said with a smile, “I’ll make a few sunny-side-up eggs later, your favorite, medium done!”

“Should I get the microphone and the takeout menu?” Wang Yang smiled, and Jessica rolled her eyes at him with a playful slap, “You’ll get scorched food if you irritate me.” Wang Yang watched her cooking and after a while joked, “If we had that whatever laser device, we could use it to heat this pot and then fry the eggs.” Jessica looked at him puzzled, “What do you mean by whatever laser? Is that what you got from UCLA today?”

“Hmm, I need to call the professor to find out exactly what laser…” (.)