Network Construction
The analysis treats C. N. Yang as the central ego node and connects him to people appearing in one or more of the three evidence layers. Time is modelled at the yearly level and aggregated into decades for higher-level interpretation. Each node is enriched, where possible, with country or institutional location, allowing the project to compare China-based, US-based, and other international ties.
The three network layers can be summarised as follows:
| Layer | Meaning | Time span in processed outputs | Nodes | Edges |
| Coauthorship | Formal intellectual collaboration through publications | 1947-2019 | 165 | 164 |
| Correspondence | Direct communication through letters and archived exchanges | 1951-1993 | 103 | 102 |
| Photo co-mention | Archival co-presence and social visibility in photographs | 1924-2006 | 162 | 161 |
In the merged outputs, repeated appearances across years are treated as stronger ties. The project also builds a composite tie-strength score that weights coauthorship most heavily, correspondence second, and photo co-mention third. This design reflects the logic of the project: a coauthored paper is stronger evidence of sustained scholarly collaboration than a single photograph, while a letter sits somewhere in between.
- Figure 1. The three ego-networks show that all layers are centred on C. N. Yang, but the surrounding names differ sharply by tie type. Note: In the photo layer, Franklin Yang refers to Yang Guang Nuo, C. N. Yang’s eldest son.
- The original visualisation could be found here.