Yang was born on 16 July 1919 in the town of Zhenze in Wujiang, Jiangsu, Republic of China.[1][2][3] After graduating from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in July 1941 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, he pursued postgraduate studies at Harvard University in the United States, earning his M.S. in 1947 and Ph.D. in 1949.[2]