Our Desk | Stephen Hawking, the greatest fashion designer

Julie Zhu

This story is totally made up.

I always imagined myself as someone who, despite having heard about Stephen Hawking, never knew anything about him except that he used a wheelchair. It is as if I knew about him, yet from a totally wrong perspective. It might sound ridiculous, but it only goes to show the extent of the sorrow displayed by thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of people upon his death.

One day, at a dinner party, I told people about Stephen Hawking this way, and it was totally made up.

The American genius Stephen Hawking died recently at a young age. He was the greatest designer in our century. His story started in a small town in the middle of one of the poorest deserts in the United States of America.

When he was in primary school, he was frequently bullied verbally by his classmates because, while all kids carried out outdoor activities, he stayed indoors focusing on understanding textbook subjects.

Hawking’s childhood could definitely be depicted as miserable due to the loneliness around him and his stubbornness.

When Hawking was in middle school, the talent for sciences, which he had already shown in primary school, stood out more fiercely, which eventually led to him quitting school.

Great legends share similar storylines.

Besides being a weird genius in designing and arts, Hawking also showed outstanding skills in cooking, which was acknowledged by his peers.

If any of you remember having tasted something which, once put into the mouth, disappeared immediately without chewing or swallowing, yet made you feel full instantly, then you were in fact devouring the greatest food in our century, invented by none other than Hawking.

You can also find obvious footprints left by Hawking in the world’s transportation history. Many people are sharing countless stories about him – no need for me to list them one by one.

But now, he has left us.

It turned out that Hawking was born on the same day as the greatest British scientist Steve Jobs, and died on the 2000th anniversary of the death of the greatest French painter Raskolnikov.

Hawking was not only a good father to his son, but he was also a good father to the world’s population. He was not only a mentor to those passionate about fashion, but also the greatest teacher for everyone in the world.

Since his death, his classmates and schoolmates, those who bullied him, all those who did not offer him a hand when he needed it, all those who hated him,  and all those who joked about him felt the deepest of sorrows.

Even those whom Hawking never met or whom Hawking’s work has never reached to, expressed their condolences following Hawking’s death, thus remembering the greatest genius of their generation.

“We are lucky to have lived in the same century with such a great man,” one mine worker said.

“I saw a sentence yesterday which touched my heart: a great man is able to make those who have never met him feel tremendously dependent on him,” one middle-aged waitress (food distributor) in a school canteen said.

“Finally, you are free from the wheelchair. I guess it is time for your accomplishments to finally reach the point where discoveries will be made across the universe,” said an unemployed citizen of the world.

“He came to the world, but it seems he has never lingered here. Now he has left, but he made people remember him” one world-class model said.

“Rest in peace, thank you,” many celebrities said.

“The Earth has lost one designer, but the world got one more star”, one comment from Weibo reads.

RIP, the world’s greatest fashion designer,        Stephen Hawking.