Danian Hu | Southern University of Science and Technology (original) (raw)
Papers by Danian Hu
William Band's story illustrates some previously overlooked aspects in the development of mod... more William Band's story illustrates some previously overlooked aspects in the development of modern science in Republican China, highlighting transnational contributions by individual Western scientists and the special role played by mission colleges. Physics teaching at Yenching began no later than 1920 when its College of Natural Sciences was founded, and physics instruction was first carried out in collaboration with Peking Union Medical College. Band's initial appointment was as an "Instructor in Theoretical Physics", and his teaching indeed helped cultivate theoretical studies in physics. Both Vector Analysis and the Principle of Relativity were also brand-new courses at Yenching University. Indeed, there was "no let-up in academic standards" at Yenching University during these years of "militant nationalism", when the physics department was mostly under Band's leadership. William Band contributed much to the Chinese development in modern physics, especially the professionalization of Chinese studies in theoretical physics. Keywords: militant nationalism; modern physics; modern science; Republican China; theoretical physics; William Band; Yenching University
Technology and Culture, 2014
ABSTRACT Was the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) an absolute calamity for Chinese science and techn... more ABSTRACT Was the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) an absolute calamity for Chinese science and technology or was it actually beneficial at a certain level and in some areas? While the former verdict has been widely accepted around the world in the past three decades, some researchers have challenged this total-failure narrative and begun to explore the Cultural Revolution’s true impact on Chinese developments. Chunjuan Wei, a political scientist at the University of Bridgeport, and Darryl Brock, a Ph.D. candidate in modern history at Fordham University, have joined these challengers and edited this volume to advance two propositions. The first is best summarized by Joseph Dauben in his foreword, namely “despite the difficulties and denunciations many suffered during the Cultural Revolution, there were important areas of science and technology that nevertheless continued to receive support and in fact achieved substantial results during the Cultural Revolution” (p. xvi). The second claims that there are “potential continuities” between the tradition of the May Fourth Movement and that of the Cultural Revolution, with “influences from the former to the latter” (p. 5). The first thesis is significant and thought-provoking but, unfortunately, has not been effectively supported by the enclosed contributions. Among the eleven essays, five actually contradict this thesis and one concerning post-Mao population policy is irrelevant; only five papers are more or less supportive. Among the dissenters, Cong Cao examines the impact of the Cultural Revolution and concludes that its influence on “China’s scientific enterprise and scientists” was uniquely “long and devastating” (p. 119); Michael Mikita argues that “the ways in which the Cultural Revolution brought science and technology closer to the people,” depicted in the 1975 propaganda movie Breaking with Old Ideas, was merely “a utopian vision of an egalitarian future” (p. 161); Yibao Xu investigates how “ideology dramatically affected mathematicians during the Cultural Revolution” (p. 167) and demonstrates that “[the] dialectical approach to understanding the origins of calculus, in the end, proved unable to withstand scrutiny” (p. 186); Yinghong Cheng analyzes “the intense and enduring Maoist interest in and discussion on cosmology” and argues that the discussion was “essential” for justifying “the [Cultural] Revolution and similar political campaigns in scientific terms” (p. 197); and Rudi Volti assesses worker innovation—a Maoist approach to technological development—during the Cultural Revolution and concludes that instead of “elevating China’s technological prowess,” “the encouragement of shop-floor and grass-roots technological innovation” in fact “further debilitated” the country (p. 343). Among the supporters of the first thesis, Darryl Brock theorizes and concludes that “in many ways, Chairman Mao’s science policy did have benefits to scientific innovation and that the mass line emerged better prepared to meet a technological future in the final decades of the twentieth century” (p. 110). However, Brock does not distinguish between the accomplishments during the Cultural Revolution and those due to it; he utilizes almost no primary sources, especially those in Chinese, except a few pieces from Peking Review and Hongqi (Red Flag), two of the main propagandist organs of the Chinese authorities at the time! He has too easily accepted the face value of the contemporary Chinese and Western reports, which hardly tell the whole truth. As a result, his arguments are far from convincing. Stacey Solomone explores the Cultural Revolution’s impacts on China’s aerospace industry and attempts to “demonstrate that Mao quite successfully utilized the nascent industry for his military and political goals” (p. 234); this is based mostly on secondary materials and media reports and makes no reference to two very relevant and significant books by Li Chengzhi (Zhongguo hangtian jishu fazhan shigao [A Draft History of Space Technology in China], 2006) and Liu Jifeng (Liang dan yi xing gongcheng yu da kexue [The Project of “Two Bombs, One Satellite”: A Model of the Big Science], 2004). Lack of reliable sources may help explain the appearance of some faulty evidence and oversimplified interpretations in Solomone’s essay. Chunjuan Wei’s essay echoes the recent nostalgia for the rural cooperative medical-care system during the Cultural Revolution, arguing that “Mao’s barefoot-doctor campaign … proved effective in helping to solve China’s rural health dilemma” (p. 274). Although this system...
Studies in the History of Natural Sciences, 2005
The Chinese Journal for the History of Science and Technology, 2014
Xu Liangying( 1920 ~ 2013) was an eminent historian of science,a leading translator and exponent ... more Xu Liangying( 1920 ~ 2013) was an eminent historian of science,a leading translator and exponent of Albert Einstien's works in China,and a founder of the Chinese study of dialectics of nature. Born in Linhai,Zhejiang Province,Xu graduated from the physics department of Zhejiang University in 1942,where he studied with the nuclear physicist Wang Ganchang. Xu joined the Communist Party of China( CPC) in 1946 and became one of the leaders of student movements at Zhejiang University and in Hangzhou,Zhejiang,during the 1940s,making significant contributions in developing the CPC organizations in Hangzhou. After the CPC took over Hangzhou in 1949,Xu was a member of the CPC Hangzhou Municipal Working Committee and took charge of youth affairs. In 1952,he was summoned to the headquarters of the Chinese Academy of Sciences( CAS) in Beijing, editing Chinese Science Bulletin. In 1956 Xu requested to be transferred to the Institute of Philosophy,where he suffered political persecution durin...
Bulletin of the American Physical Society, 2019
To his friends, colleagues, and students, Martin Klein was a gentle and modest man of extraordina... more To his friends, colleagues, and students, Martin Klein was a gentle and modest man of extraordinary integrity whose stellar accomplishments garnered himmany honors. I sketch his life and career, in which he transformed himself from a theoretical physicist at Columbia University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Case Institute of Technology into a historian of physics while on leave at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Leiden and then pursued this field full time at Yale University.
Studies in the History of Natural Sciences, 2018
Chinese Annals of History of Science and Technology, 2019
Physics in Perspective, 2019
Trained at University of Liverpool in both theoretical and experimental physics, William Band acc... more Trained at University of Liverpool in both theoretical and experimental physics, William Band accepted in 1929 an appointment at Christian Yenching University in Beijing, China, where he established his career through the 1930s, heading the physics department and nurturing dozens of distinguished Chinese researchers in its MSc program. Despite the Japanese occupation of Beijing in summer 1937, Band continued his work at Yenching—an American property and an oasis of freedom for Chinese students in North China. In the wake of Pearl Harbor, Band joined a breathtaking and successful escape from Yenching, just before the Japanese raid reached the campus. He sought refuge in Communist guerrilla bases in North China, where he taught calculus, college physics, and radio theory to radio technicians of guerrilla forces. After trekking one thousand miles through Japanese occupied areas, escorted by Communist guerrillas, Band arrived first in Yan’an, the Chinese Communist headquarters, where he met and conversed with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, and then in Chongqing, China’s wartime capital, where he served in the Sino-British Science Cooperation Office to help war-ridden Chinese scientists until his departure for Britain in December 1944. Band’s adventure provides a unique and useful lens to explore uncharted aspects of science in Republican China.
The Reception of the Physicist and His Theory in China, 1917-1979
The Reception of the Physicist and His Theory in China, 1917-1979
Physics in Perspective, 2012
ABSTRACT To his friends, colleagues, and students, Martin Klein was a gentle and modest man of ex... more ABSTRACT To his friends, colleagues, and students, Martin Klein was a gentle and modest man of extraordinary integrity whose stellar accomplishments garnered himmanyhonors. I sketch his life and career, in which he transformed himself from a theoretical physicist at Columbia University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Case Institute of Technology into a historian of physics while on leave at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Leiden and then pursued this field full time at Yale University.
Isis, 2007
Having introduced the theory of relativity from Japan, the Chinese quickly and enthusiastically e... more Having introduced the theory of relativity from Japan, the Chinese quickly and enthusiastically embraced it during the May Fourth Movement, virtually without controversy. This unique passion for and openness to relativity, which helped advance the study of theoretical physics in China in the 1930s, was gradually replaced by imported Soviet criticism after 1949. During the Cultural Revolution, radical Chinese ideologues sponsored organized campaigns against Einstein and relativity, inflicting serious damage on Chinese science and scientific education. China's economic reforms in the late 1970s empowered scientists and presented them with the opportunity to rehabilitate Einstein and call for social democracy. Einstein has since become the symbol in China of the unity of science and democracy, the two eminent objectives of the May Fourth Movement that remain to be achieved in full. Using the reception of relativity as a case study, the essay also discusses issues involving the historical study of modern Chinese science.
Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 2004
ABSTRACT: Albert Einstein's unique high status in China made him an easy target of political ... more ABSTRACT: Albert Einstein's unique high status in China made him an easy target of political attacks and maneuvers during the Cultural Revolution. The criticism began with a middle-school teacher's attack on general relativity and developed into organized campaigns after gaining support from two powerful, radical Party propagandists, Chen Boda and Yao Wenyuan. While Chen supported the criticism out of political ambition and cultural prejudice, Yao exploited it to attack his political rival Zhou Enlai and maintain absolute control of Chinese science by orthodox Marxist ideology. The criticism largely ended after both radical leaders fell from power, but not before it did serious damage to Chinese science and education. This article explores the rise, development, and consequences of the criticism, which first appeared in the Soviet Union and stemmed from ideological insistence on the dominance of dialectical materialism in all scientific studies. Marxist doctrines became the ...
ABSTRACT Li Fangbai (1890-1959) was the first Chinese physicist who introduced relativity in Chin... more ABSTRACT Li Fangbai (1890-1959) was the first Chinese physicist who introduced relativity in China. Although Li was educated in Japan, his introduction was based completely on his reading of Western physics works, especially those by U.S. scientists Gilbert N. Lewis and Richard C. Tolman. Since then U.S. scientists had an increasingly significant influence on the Chinese reception and research of relativity. For example, two leading Chinese theoretical physicists, who carried on researches in general relativity in the 1930s and 1940s, graduated from Caltech and MIT respectively. There were many other connections between U.S. physicists and China's reception of relativity. This paper presents findings of the historical investigation on such connections, which will also reveal the U.S. contributions to the rise of theoretical physics in China.
China and Albert Einstein, 2005
China and Albert Einstein
William Band's story illustrates some previously overlooked aspects in the development of mod... more William Band's story illustrates some previously overlooked aspects in the development of modern science in Republican China, highlighting transnational contributions by individual Western scientists and the special role played by mission colleges. Physics teaching at Yenching began no later than 1920 when its College of Natural Sciences was founded, and physics instruction was first carried out in collaboration with Peking Union Medical College. Band's initial appointment was as an "Instructor in Theoretical Physics", and his teaching indeed helped cultivate theoretical studies in physics. Both Vector Analysis and the Principle of Relativity were also brand-new courses at Yenching University. Indeed, there was "no let-up in academic standards" at Yenching University during these years of "militant nationalism", when the physics department was mostly under Band's leadership. William Band contributed much to the Chinese development in modern physics, especially the professionalization of Chinese studies in theoretical physics. Keywords: militant nationalism; modern physics; modern science; Republican China; theoretical physics; William Band; Yenching University
Technology and Culture, 2014
ABSTRACT Was the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) an absolute calamity for Chinese science and techn... more ABSTRACT Was the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) an absolute calamity for Chinese science and technology or was it actually beneficial at a certain level and in some areas? While the former verdict has been widely accepted around the world in the past three decades, some researchers have challenged this total-failure narrative and begun to explore the Cultural Revolution’s true impact on Chinese developments. Chunjuan Wei, a political scientist at the University of Bridgeport, and Darryl Brock, a Ph.D. candidate in modern history at Fordham University, have joined these challengers and edited this volume to advance two propositions. The first is best summarized by Joseph Dauben in his foreword, namely “despite the difficulties and denunciations many suffered during the Cultural Revolution, there were important areas of science and technology that nevertheless continued to receive support and in fact achieved substantial results during the Cultural Revolution” (p. xvi). The second claims that there are “potential continuities” between the tradition of the May Fourth Movement and that of the Cultural Revolution, with “influences from the former to the latter” (p. 5). The first thesis is significant and thought-provoking but, unfortunately, has not been effectively supported by the enclosed contributions. Among the eleven essays, five actually contradict this thesis and one concerning post-Mao population policy is irrelevant; only five papers are more or less supportive. Among the dissenters, Cong Cao examines the impact of the Cultural Revolution and concludes that its influence on “China’s scientific enterprise and scientists” was uniquely “long and devastating” (p. 119); Michael Mikita argues that “the ways in which the Cultural Revolution brought science and technology closer to the people,” depicted in the 1975 propaganda movie Breaking with Old Ideas, was merely “a utopian vision of an egalitarian future” (p. 161); Yibao Xu investigates how “ideology dramatically affected mathematicians during the Cultural Revolution” (p. 167) and demonstrates that “[the] dialectical approach to understanding the origins of calculus, in the end, proved unable to withstand scrutiny” (p. 186); Yinghong Cheng analyzes “the intense and enduring Maoist interest in and discussion on cosmology” and argues that the discussion was “essential” for justifying “the [Cultural] Revolution and similar political campaigns in scientific terms” (p. 197); and Rudi Volti assesses worker innovation—a Maoist approach to technological development—during the Cultural Revolution and concludes that instead of “elevating China’s technological prowess,” “the encouragement of shop-floor and grass-roots technological innovation” in fact “further debilitated” the country (p. 343). Among the supporters of the first thesis, Darryl Brock theorizes and concludes that “in many ways, Chairman Mao’s science policy did have benefits to scientific innovation and that the mass line emerged better prepared to meet a technological future in the final decades of the twentieth century” (p. 110). However, Brock does not distinguish between the accomplishments during the Cultural Revolution and those due to it; he utilizes almost no primary sources, especially those in Chinese, except a few pieces from Peking Review and Hongqi (Red Flag), two of the main propagandist organs of the Chinese authorities at the time! He has too easily accepted the face value of the contemporary Chinese and Western reports, which hardly tell the whole truth. As a result, his arguments are far from convincing. Stacey Solomone explores the Cultural Revolution’s impacts on China’s aerospace industry and attempts to “demonstrate that Mao quite successfully utilized the nascent industry for his military and political goals” (p. 234); this is based mostly on secondary materials and media reports and makes no reference to two very relevant and significant books by Li Chengzhi (Zhongguo hangtian jishu fazhan shigao [A Draft History of Space Technology in China], 2006) and Liu Jifeng (Liang dan yi xing gongcheng yu da kexue [The Project of “Two Bombs, One Satellite”: A Model of the Big Science], 2004). Lack of reliable sources may help explain the appearance of some faulty evidence and oversimplified interpretations in Solomone’s essay. Chunjuan Wei’s essay echoes the recent nostalgia for the rural cooperative medical-care system during the Cultural Revolution, arguing that “Mao’s barefoot-doctor campaign … proved effective in helping to solve China’s rural health dilemma” (p. 274). Although this system...
Studies in the History of Natural Sciences, 2005
The Chinese Journal for the History of Science and Technology, 2014
Xu Liangying( 1920 ~ 2013) was an eminent historian of science,a leading translator and exponent ... more Xu Liangying( 1920 ~ 2013) was an eminent historian of science,a leading translator and exponent of Albert Einstien's works in China,and a founder of the Chinese study of dialectics of nature. Born in Linhai,Zhejiang Province,Xu graduated from the physics department of Zhejiang University in 1942,where he studied with the nuclear physicist Wang Ganchang. Xu joined the Communist Party of China( CPC) in 1946 and became one of the leaders of student movements at Zhejiang University and in Hangzhou,Zhejiang,during the 1940s,making significant contributions in developing the CPC organizations in Hangzhou. After the CPC took over Hangzhou in 1949,Xu was a member of the CPC Hangzhou Municipal Working Committee and took charge of youth affairs. In 1952,he was summoned to the headquarters of the Chinese Academy of Sciences( CAS) in Beijing, editing Chinese Science Bulletin. In 1956 Xu requested to be transferred to the Institute of Philosophy,where he suffered political persecution durin...
Bulletin of the American Physical Society, 2019
To his friends, colleagues, and students, Martin Klein was a gentle and modest man of extraordina... more To his friends, colleagues, and students, Martin Klein was a gentle and modest man of extraordinary integrity whose stellar accomplishments garnered himmany honors. I sketch his life and career, in which he transformed himself from a theoretical physicist at Columbia University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Case Institute of Technology into a historian of physics while on leave at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Leiden and then pursued this field full time at Yale University.
Studies in the History of Natural Sciences, 2018
Chinese Annals of History of Science and Technology, 2019
Physics in Perspective, 2019
Trained at University of Liverpool in both theoretical and experimental physics, William Band acc... more Trained at University of Liverpool in both theoretical and experimental physics, William Band accepted in 1929 an appointment at Christian Yenching University in Beijing, China, where he established his career through the 1930s, heading the physics department and nurturing dozens of distinguished Chinese researchers in its MSc program. Despite the Japanese occupation of Beijing in summer 1937, Band continued his work at Yenching—an American property and an oasis of freedom for Chinese students in North China. In the wake of Pearl Harbor, Band joined a breathtaking and successful escape from Yenching, just before the Japanese raid reached the campus. He sought refuge in Communist guerrilla bases in North China, where he taught calculus, college physics, and radio theory to radio technicians of guerrilla forces. After trekking one thousand miles through Japanese occupied areas, escorted by Communist guerrillas, Band arrived first in Yan’an, the Chinese Communist headquarters, where he met and conversed with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, and then in Chongqing, China’s wartime capital, where he served in the Sino-British Science Cooperation Office to help war-ridden Chinese scientists until his departure for Britain in December 1944. Band’s adventure provides a unique and useful lens to explore uncharted aspects of science in Republican China.
The Reception of the Physicist and His Theory in China, 1917-1979
The Reception of the Physicist and His Theory in China, 1917-1979
Physics in Perspective, 2012
ABSTRACT To his friends, colleagues, and students, Martin Klein was a gentle and modest man of ex... more ABSTRACT To his friends, colleagues, and students, Martin Klein was a gentle and modest man of extraordinary integrity whose stellar accomplishments garnered himmanyhonors. I sketch his life and career, in which he transformed himself from a theoretical physicist at Columbia University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Case Institute of Technology into a historian of physics while on leave at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Leiden and then pursued this field full time at Yale University.
Isis, 2007
Having introduced the theory of relativity from Japan, the Chinese quickly and enthusiastically e... more Having introduced the theory of relativity from Japan, the Chinese quickly and enthusiastically embraced it during the May Fourth Movement, virtually without controversy. This unique passion for and openness to relativity, which helped advance the study of theoretical physics in China in the 1930s, was gradually replaced by imported Soviet criticism after 1949. During the Cultural Revolution, radical Chinese ideologues sponsored organized campaigns against Einstein and relativity, inflicting serious damage on Chinese science and scientific education. China's economic reforms in the late 1970s empowered scientists and presented them with the opportunity to rehabilitate Einstein and call for social democracy. Einstein has since become the symbol in China of the unity of science and democracy, the two eminent objectives of the May Fourth Movement that remain to be achieved in full. Using the reception of relativity as a case study, the essay also discusses issues involving the historical study of modern Chinese science.
Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 2004
ABSTRACT: Albert Einstein's unique high status in China made him an easy target of political ... more ABSTRACT: Albert Einstein's unique high status in China made him an easy target of political attacks and maneuvers during the Cultural Revolution. The criticism began with a middle-school teacher's attack on general relativity and developed into organized campaigns after gaining support from two powerful, radical Party propagandists, Chen Boda and Yao Wenyuan. While Chen supported the criticism out of political ambition and cultural prejudice, Yao exploited it to attack his political rival Zhou Enlai and maintain absolute control of Chinese science by orthodox Marxist ideology. The criticism largely ended after both radical leaders fell from power, but not before it did serious damage to Chinese science and education. This article explores the rise, development, and consequences of the criticism, which first appeared in the Soviet Union and stemmed from ideological insistence on the dominance of dialectical materialism in all scientific studies. Marxist doctrines became the ...
ABSTRACT Li Fangbai (1890-1959) was the first Chinese physicist who introduced relativity in Chin... more ABSTRACT Li Fangbai (1890-1959) was the first Chinese physicist who introduced relativity in China. Although Li was educated in Japan, his introduction was based completely on his reading of Western physics works, especially those by U.S. scientists Gilbert N. Lewis and Richard C. Tolman. Since then U.S. scientists had an increasingly significant influence on the Chinese reception and research of relativity. For example, two leading Chinese theoretical physicists, who carried on researches in general relativity in the 1930s and 1940s, graduated from Caltech and MIT respectively. There were many other connections between U.S. physicists and China's reception of relativity. This paper presents findings of the historical investigation on such connections, which will also reveal the U.S. contributions to the rise of theoretical physics in China.
China and Albert Einstein, 2005
China and Albert Einstein