Here is a short news report (in English) from Changsha as Yuan Longping's body is transferred from the hospital to the undertakers. People came out to say goodbye and traffic stopped to let him pass.
Have a look at some of the comments below. I can't remember or imagine anything like those being expressed about any western scientist. I was a baby when Einstein died and although Stephen Hawking was widely admired, it wasn't really for his research, but for his surviving so long. Neither Einstein's or Hawking's work had a profound influence on people's daily lives. Few even understood it. Subsistence farmers certainly knew what hugely increased rice yields meant to them. Please remember that, when Yuan developed his hybrids, 80% of China's population was rural and a large percentage of them were leading subsistence lives. Suddenly, they had excess to sell, thereby improving their living standards.
Almost every Chinese person I know has posted some tribute on Chinese equivalents of Twitter or Facebook. Chinese friends now in the UK and the USA have done so on both Chinese and Western portals. Chinese television is broadcasting 2 to 3 hour tribute programs.
I haven't know anything like this since Princess Diana died in France in 1997, although I missed most of that (I was internet-less in China at the time, but caught up later.)
