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Post by douglaslam on Oct 31, 2009 4:54:31 GMT -5
www.peopleforum.cn/redirect.php?tid=3283&goto=lastpostI just heard in a Chinese news bulletin announcing the death of Qian Xuesen ( 銭 学 森）in Beijing, at the age of 98. Qian was one of the really great applied sientific minds of the 20th century, especially in the field of aerodynamics. His death will be mourned right across China. There is one glaring error in the article, it got the month wrong.
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Post by douglaslam on Oct 31, 2009 18:11:06 GMT -5
Correction: the date given in the article is correct. There must have been a correction made or that I had confused with another article I had read from Reuters which showed November 31 as the date.
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Post by douglaslam on Nov 8, 2009 3:29:35 GMT -5
As seen on China's CCTV,Qian Xuesen's memorial was attended by China's entire present and past central government leaders. It is a testimony to Qian's high esteem held by the people, and as the most significant player in China's ascendancy in rocketry and space exploration.
Qian had a link to one of many painful chapters in China's modern history. He was one of the recipients of the Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarships. 庚子賠款獎學金. The Boxer Uprising as it is often referred to was, for better or worse, one of the factors for our forebears to leave families and loved ones to venture abroad.
I find I cannot remain unaffected reading how China was carved up by foreign powers; the unequal treaties foisted on her and the reparations exacted by the Eight Allied Powers. This happened in our parents' and grandparents' time. The US did see fit to repay some of the excessive ransom money in the form of scholarships to fund those exceptionally gifted young men to study in America. Qian proved himself to be one of enormous talent. It was a quirk of fate that his talent was rejected by the US in the hysteria of Cold War politics. One can ruminate about how things might have been if he was to remain in the US. But great injustice was done, and he was repatriated back to China in a Korean POW exchange program.
Thus, he left a lasting legacy and attained a heroic and cult figure status in China. I will always remember him as a great genius and a link to China's recent historic past.
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