US scientist Eric Betzig could probably never imagine that being awarded as this year's Nobel laureate in chemistry would inspire the pride of a local high school thousands of miles away in China. But he might feel a bit disappointed because the congratulations have nothing do with his "development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy," and may be a little disconcerted as the school takes the liberty of calling him "son-in-law" enthusiastically.

All the credit should be attributed to Betzig's Chinese-born wife Ji Na, who spent six years at this school in Bengbu, East China's Anhui Province, before she went to college. Ji furthered her studies at the University of California, Berkeley after college and then married Betzig.

With the notice "sincere congratulations to Eric Betzig, son-in-law of our school, for winning 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry" on a large electronic bulletin board at the campus, the school used a bit of Chinese-style name-dropping strategy to claim itself as a branch of the Betzig family. But after the picture was posted on the Internet, the congratulations soon became a laughing stock.

The Nobel Prize has been causing a stir among China's public in recent years. Chinese writer Mo Yan made history in 2012 as the first Chinese national honored as a Nobel laureate in literature, after Chinese-born French resident Gao Xingjian won in 2000.

Chinese people want more. Most believe that a Nobel Prize in natural sciences is a symbol of a world-class level of scientific research. Some mainland-born scientists have won science Nobels, but all of them for work performed in the US.

Several Chinese-born scientists were nominated by the Nobel Committee this year, but it turns out that none of them were favored at last. Disappointment can be felt in the public discourse these days.

Meanwhile, the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, which resulted in a spate of public criticism about the value of the prize, still rankles, forcing many on the mainland into a love-hate relationship with this accolade.

This special complex toward the Nobel Prize has caused a split in the public discourse. Some Chinese demean it as a "dynamite prize," using a pun to connect the invention of the founder of the prize Alfred Nobel and the controversies it causes each year.

But they have to admit that the Nobel Prizes in natural sciences are billed as the benchmark to define top-of-the-art scientific achievements and scientists. More Chinese laureates in these fields are desired.

In this Bengbu case, although the authorities of the school responded that they were just trying to motivate their students, the effect seems to be the other way around. The awkward congratulations do not even single out Ji, a real alumna of the school and also an accomplished physicist, but overreach themselves in flattery.

Rather than either cold-shouldering or worshiping, the right attitude toward the Nobel Prize is somewhere in between. It could serve as a reference for China to reflect on itself, keeping a clear mind of the gap between China and advanced countries in terms of sciences and humanities, but it will never be the baseline for final judgments.