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Template:Did you know nominations/Stephen Shing-Toung Yau

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The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Yoninah (talk) 22:08, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

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Stephen Shing-Toung Yau

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Created by Zanhe (talk). Self-nominated at 19:22, 17 August 2019 (UTC).

  • A new hook is probably needed here as it's not very interesting unless you know who Yau is. One possible suggestion I could give is perhaps a hook on how he has published over 300 papers, though it's up to you. Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 23:52, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
@Narutolovehinata5: I respectfully disagree. One doesn't have to know who they are to find it interesting that the two brothers' names are so confusingly similar and they are both accomplished mathematicians, even if we ignore the fact that Shing-Tung Yau is one of the most famous mathematicians alive (winner of the Fields Medal aka the math Nobel Prize). -Zanhe (talk) 00:00, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
That would need to be clarified in the hook since the current wording just by itself it won't catch attention. Perhaps you could instead word the hook as something like "the brother of Fields Medal winner..." or something like that? Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 00:04, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
It's not the individual words themselves that are interesting, but the repetitions of a simple word (mathematician) and of the brothers' near-identical names that make the hook quirky. Adding "Field Prize" would ruin the effect and shift the focus from the subject to his more famous brother. -Zanhe (talk) 00:09, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
I see. If that was the effect you are going for, then I can accept that wording. However, I would still suggest you propose an alternate hook in case another editor rejects the original. I'll be doing a full review later. Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 00:12, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
  • Nah, Narutolover was right. I'm 110% aware it's not where you're coming from, but "Damn Chinese names sure sound alike" isn't really a valid hook. It was just a conscious decision by their parents. Nothing else to this guy? — LlywelynII 19:57, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
  • Proposing ALT1 and ALT2 for consideration. I personally think ALT0 is more interesting (the confusion of their names is what prompted me to write the article in the first place), but as interestingness is entirely subjective, I'd respect the majority opinion. -Zanhe (talk) 22:18, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
ALT2 is a fairly common occurrence in academe (academics becoming full-time teachers after retirement) so I don't think it's suitable. ALT1 has potential, but honestly I kind of prefer the original hook in this case. Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 01:50, 24 August 2019 (UTC)
ALT3: ... that mathematician Stephen Shing-Toung Yau, who established "Yau algebra" and the "Yau number", has published about 300 academic papers?
ALT3a: ... that mathematician Stephen Shing-Toung Yau has published about 300 academic papers and established "Yau algebra" and the "Yau number"?
Another option could be to combine elements of previously proposed hooks (for example, there could be a hook that mentions both his brother and the number of papers, or one that mentions his brother and the algebra/number establishment). Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 04:16, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
Frankly I don't think there's anything wrong with the original hook. The brothers share nearly identical names that happen to be Chinese, but if they shared similar Western names, say "Stephen" vs. "Stephan", the hook would be equally interesting. However, I don't want to spill more ink on this issue, any of the proposed hooks is acceptable to me (except that I changed "over" to "about" for accuracy). -Zanhe (talk) 06:01, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
  • I'm now going to do a full review of this, but before I do, I'd first like to ask @LlywelynII: if they're okay with any of the hooks that have been proposed so far. Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 02:08, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
Pinging again since I made a mistake in the previous edit. Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 02:09, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
I was just chipping in to second that—even though I knew where Zanhe was coming from—ALT0 really does come across like "ching chang chong", modern Mandarin—especially its names—has too many homophones for it to be very interesting even to people who knew better, and it wasn't just you being weird or overly picky. If you now have no problem with it and have a problem with presumptively upper-class people spending their retirement working more (which does seem odd to me at least), I don't know what to tell either of you. You're the real reviewer. As long as it's sourced and you two and the promoter are happy with it, godspeed. — LlywelynII 04:44, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
  • Article meets requirements, no close paraphrasing was found, Chinese sources accepted in good faith, QPQ done. Since I proposed hooks, I will be unable to give this a tick, so a new reviewer is needed to choose a hook. Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 00:47, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
  • OK, trusting the rest of Narutolovehinata5's review, I'm approving ALT1. It is stated clearly in the text and sourced, although in Chinese, which I can't read so AGF. It is simple and snappy. (The playing on Chinese names in ALT0 isn't appropriate, there is nothing notable about an academic writing academic papers - 300 in a career of over 30 years isn't so unusual.) Felixkrater (talk) 19:16, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
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