Yi Suchong



"War a terrible thing. Japanese kill every man in my city, except for Suchong. Suchong have opium. Very good opium. This war, terrible thing, too, but not for Suchong..."

- Yi Suchong

Yi Suchong Ph.D. was a leading medical researcher in Rapture studying ADAM and its uses to create plasmids and alter brain function, as well as creating the Little Sisters and Big Daddies. Usually referring to himself in the third person, Suchong was an opportunist, using even tragic events such as war to his own benefit. He conformed perfectly to Rapture's capitalistic society and worked simply for the highest bidder.

Life on the Surface
Suchong's years before Rapture are clouded, but he mentions in one of his audio diaries that "Japanese kill every man in my city," which could potentially place him in the city of Nanking (today Nanjing) during the Japanese invasion of 1937. During the occupation, which is typically referred to either as the Nanking Massacre or the "Rape of Nanking," the Japanese Imperial Army did indeed slaughter many of the residents, including most of the men in the city. Suchong was presumably spared because he supplied the Japanese troops with opium. The characters in his name, also, are pronounced with their Mandarin Chinese readings. A Chinese newspaper reported Suchong's disappearance in December of 1946.

Career in Rapture
First employed by Frank Fontaine in his company, Fontaine Futuristics, Suchong was directly involved in creating the Enrage and Telekinesis plasmids (and possibly more). While Brigid Tenenbaum was responsible for the Little Sisters' physical ability to process ADAM from the dead, Suchong was responsible for the mental conditioning that gave them the need to "gather" the substance from corpses. Suchong realized that, though they were invulnerable to harm, they still only possessed the strength of small children and needed to be protected. He was instrumental in the creation of the Big Daddies and the mental conditioning that forced them to guard the Little Sisters.

During this time, Suchong was involved in Fontaine's project to create an "ace in the hole" weapon, namely, Jack. Suchong monitored Jack's rapid aging and implanted him with at least two known mind control triggers: "Would you kindly", which causes Jack to obey unquestioningly, and "Code Yellow", which can ultimately stop Jack's heart. Suchong developed an antidote, Lot 192, to this mental conditioning, as Fontaine requested because he "... worries he'll end up on the wrong side of grift."

In 1958, after Frank Fontaine's fake death, Suchong was employed by Andrew Ryan who took over Fontaine Futuristics and where he continued his work on Big Daddies. Suchong's skill with implanting the Big Daddy's protection instinct led to his demise. During a moment of frustration regarding his supposed failure to imprint the protection instinct on the Big Daddies, he struck and cursed at a Little Sister, who was pestering him, which unexpectedly triggered the Big Daddy's mental conditioning and it proceeded to kill him. A corpse can be found in Suchong's clinic in Apollo Square, still pinned to the desk by the drill.

After his death, Gilbert Alexander, another influential scientist from Fontaine Futuristics, took control of the Protector Program.

Audio Diaries

 * Medical Pavilion
 * Enrage Trial
 * Plasmids are the Paint
 * Testing Telekinesis
 * Rapture Central Control
 * The Vita Chamber
 * Mind Control Test
 * Baby Status
 * Olympus Heights
 * Mozart of Genetics
 * Fontaine's Human Jukebox
 * Mind Control Antidote
 * Apollo Square
 * Protection Bond
 * Point Prometheus
 * Extra Munitions
 * Protecting Little Ones
 * Protector Smell
 * Missing Boots
 * Cheap Son of a Bitch
 * Changing Employers
 * Removed Audio Diaries
 * Little Sisters and Corpses

Trivia

 * Only Yi Suchong's audio diary portrait has blood stains on it, possibly because he is the only character whose death takes place during one of his diary recordings, or because of the violent and cruel nature of his experiments.


 * Many of the children - including Jack - refer to Suchong affectionately as Papa Suchong, despite his obvious dislike for children.


 * There is debate about this character's name. Although nearly everyone refers to him as "Dr. Suchong", he refers to himself as "Suchong" in a way that implies that it is his given name, and he may more properly be "Dr. Yi". (Also, Chinese names place the family name first, which would make Suchong his given name, but it's possible that he reversed his name to conform with Western convention.)

Yi Suchong