I thought to myself that Bertrand Russell lived to be ninety-seven and now Toynbee is eighty-two, but he will five past Toynbee's present age and I hope that he will live longer than Russell. "--This was the description of Needham twenty years ago by a journalist in the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao. So how is Dr. Joseph Needham today?
我想，羅素活了九十七歲，湯恩比現在也已八十二歲，他將活過湯恩比現在的年齡，也希望他跨過羅素的大限」，這是廿年前香港明報月刊胡菊人對李約瑟博士的描述。