It has been a story consisting of many episodes. In September 1994, I was admitted into a university as a university fellow, which guaranteed four years of financial aid from either the university or the department. As the department had the policy of granting at least five years of financial aid to a student in the Ph. D. program, the admission basically guaranteed five years of financial aid to me.
In the first year, I was doing fine. After the departmental evaluations of first year graduate students in 1995, one professor commented that everything would be fine for me in future, including funding for subsequent years and a good job after graduation.
But my situation abruptly changed shortly afterwards. In early 1996 students in my class were to submit a career plan. I included one or two sentences there to the effect that the media in this country were lopsidedly negative about China (which was the case then but not now) and that a more balanced approach would serve the U.S.’s interest better. Largely because of such a statement, some professors gave me extremely negative evaluations and tried to terminate my academic career.
My ex-wife, who was in China, thought that I was not to bring her to the U.S. She managed to come to the U.S. by herself on a business trip and sought a divorce from me. The ordeal lasted for about 7 months. Around September 1996, the department finally decided to honor its own commitment and gave me financial aid for the third year, but my first family was already broken.