Chen Ning Yang and Weng Fan have a good chance of coming out number one in a search for the Top Ten Love Stories sponsored by the China Women Daily and the Yueyang government, even though they haven't yet entered the contest, according to judging committee member Bai Ye, reported the Xin'an Evening News on July 13.

Chen Ning Yang and and his wife Weng Fan in an undated photo. [file]

The winning couple must be alive, healthy, show a harmonious and credible marriage that has had a wide influence, and their stories must be real.

Yang, 84, is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. At the end of 2004, 82-year-old Yang married 28-year-old Weng Fan in the face of much public criticism. The young bride was Yang and his ex-wife's interpreter.

Yang and Weng's union has come under criticism by the public for the large age gap in their May-December marriage.

But the sponsors said Yang and Weng still have a chance to participate in the contest that runs until October.

Bai said he would vote for Yang and Weng if the couple joined the campaign, because, he says, although they don't match in age or experience, he admires their extraordinary courage in marrying in the face of such negative social pressure and living happily ever after. 

Many netizens question the sincerity of Yang and Weng's marriage, suggesting that Weng is a gold digger and Yang is a lecherous old man.

Others support the union, however, saying that love has no age limit and citing other examples of May/December relationships in Chinese history including 49-year-old revolutionary Sun Yat-sen and 22-year-old Soong Ching-ling, 46-year-old writer Lu Xun and 27-year-old Xu Guangping, and 72-year-old prose writer Liang Shiqiu and 44-year-old singer Han Jingqing.