by Xinhua author Yuan Quan
BEIJING, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) — At Beijing’s China Scientists Museum, customer Miao Qing paused earlier than a hanging black-and-white portrait — an aged man seated with head gently tilted and pen poised — as she photographed it for her 9-year-old son’s summer season essay on a patriotic scientist from the War of Resistance towards Japanese Aggression.
His identify is Gao Shiqi, and this yr marks the a hundred and twentieth anniversary of his beginning.
SCIENCE AT FRONTLINE
Trembling palms, halting speech and unsteady steps marked his days. It was 1935, the seventh yr of Gao’s battle with encephalitis, an irritation of the mind. In Shanghai, he eked out a modest residing translating foreign-language articles, urgent on via sickness and hardship, whereas the nation itself was struggling, with Japanese forces occupying the northeast and the battle steadily advancing south.
Once a medical scholar within the United States, pursuing his doctorate, Gao wrote in an essay that yr: “For Chinese people today, struggling desperately is the only path forward.”
Gao turned to science writing as his weapon. With encouragement from the famend educator Tao Xingzhi, who championed the “science for the people” motion, he started crafting essays that defined micro organism, pests and childhood illnesses in clear, accessible language. His writings appeared in common Chinese magazines, reaching audiences from schoolchildren to housewives.
Between 1935 and 1937, regardless of the lasting injury from his sickness that left him struggling even to carry a pen, Gao produced almost 100 essays to popularize science. In his writings, science grew to become metaphor as micro organism have been depicted as invading enemies and white blood cells as nationwide heroes. Blending medical information with pointed commentary, he urged readers to withstand not solely illnesses but in addition the international forces threatening China.
“The survival of the Chinese nation is like that of a cell, threatened by its environment. With cultivation, a cell can live forever. By uniting and relying on ourselves, China will not perish,” he wrote.
Writing additionally grew to become his approach of confronting future.
Born in 1905 within the coastal metropolis of Fuzhou in east China’s Fujian Province, Gao entered the Tsinghua preparatory college on the age of 13 for additional research within the United States. He excelled in his research, however in 1928, whereas pursuing a medical doctorate on the University of Chicago, a laboratory accident occurred when a flask containing the encephalitis virus broke. The an infection that adopted left him completely disabled. But he endured, and accomplished all his programs and submitted his dissertation.
After returning to China, Gao first discovered a job at a hospital in Nanjing, however later resigned because of the corrupt setting. He then made a residing as a contract translator in Shanghai earlier than dedicating himself to science writing.
Writing gave Gao each a modest livelihood and hard-won respect. Friends praised the perception and readability of his science essays, and magazines steadily invited him to contribute. Although the act of writing was a wrestle for the younger man weakened by sickness, he present in it a deep sense of success.
“He never wanted to lose touch with the world around him,” mentioned 76-year-old Gao Zhiqi, his stepson.
When Japanese militarists staged the Lugou Bridge Incident and launched their full-scale invasion of China in 1937, Gao refused evacuation to security. Instead, he made his option to Yan’an, the revolutionary base of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in northwest China. Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and different leaders welcomed him as the primary scientist skilled within the United States to reach in Yan’an.
Although the circumstances in Yan’an weren’t supreme, Gao nonetheless acquired thoughtful care, together with monetary subsidies, a private nurse and a secretary to help along with his writing. During that point, he devoted himself to learning Marxist idea and joined the Party in 1939. Later, with the Party’s help, he traveled to Hong Kong and different cities to obtain higher medical remedy and returned to Beijing after the battle.
At that point, many patriotic scientists from dwelling and overseas got here to Yan’an. They engaged in pure science analysis and utilized numerous applied sciences to help the financial growth of the revolutionary base. They established a science academy, improved salt manufacturing, refined copper for weapons, and even invented a type of paper made out of native grass known as Malancao to assist resolve the scarcity of writing supplies.
Gao additionally made important tutorial contributions. He revealed an article proposing the creation of a nationwide protection science society geared toward advancing agriculture, bettering medical provides and educating the general public in fundamental scientific information.
BEHIND THE HERO
Chen Xiaohong, a scholar at a Shandong-based science suppose tank who has studied Gao’s work for greater than a decade, mentioned that these concepts signify the early foundations of his imaginative and prescient after 1949 that science ought to serve the individuals.
Gao believed that efforts of popularizing science ought to sustain with the occasions, assembly individuals’s wants and supporting financial growth.
His concepts have impressed and guided many Chinese individuals towards the trail of science. Among them was the late famend Chinese sci-fi author Ye Yonglie, who regarded Gao as his mentor. Ye was additionally the writer of the guide titled China’s Hawking: The Biography of Gao Shiqi, which was revealed in 2012.
The founding of the People’s Republic of China introduced Gao long-sought stability. He grew to become a deputy of China’s high legislature and was invited to attend numerous tutorial conferences. He continued to write down, from science essays, poems, to sci-fi articles.
In a 1959 article, Gao envisioned the twenty first century with cities on the moon geared up with plentiful air, water, and gas, in addition to the invention of driverless planes, automobiles, and ships. Many of those visions have since been realized or are on the verge of turning into actuality.
To the general public, Gao was a social activist, however privately, his life was a each day wrestle. By that point, he was almost utterly paralyzed from the illness, confined to a wheelchair and sometimes troubled by lingering results resembling uncontrollable eye actions. Simple duties like consuming, strolling, and even handing over mattress required fixed help. His spouse, Jin Aidi, as soon as a singer in Shanghai and later a manufacturing unit employee, cared for him tirelessly for 27 years till her personal well being declined. She handed away from most cancers in 1989, precisely one yr after Gao.
“My mom was a truly kind, gentle and patient woman,” mentioned Gao Zhiqi. “She once told me that when she first met my stepfather, she was not scared away by the man’s disability. Instead, she saw a bright, inspiring spirit.”
Jin married Gao in 1961, when her son was simply 12 years outdated. Although the daddy and son had little communication in each day life, Gao Zhiqi took excellent care of Gao by serving to him to the toilet, giving him massages and organizing his manuscripts.
What Gao Zhiqi admired most about his stepfather was that he remained optimistic about life, continued to write down and strove to enhance himself.
After Gao’s passing, he was honored by the CPC as a nationwide hero.
Today, his common science works are beneficial studying in textbooks for pupils. The China Association for Science and Technology plans to publish a set of his chosen works in September this yr, the nation’s first National Science Popularization Month. Chinese management has described scientific innovation and popularization as “the wings for the realization of innovation-driven development.”
Gao Zhiqi instructed Xinhua {that a} collection of commemorative occasions will likely be held later this yr in cities resembling Beijing, Fuzhou and Suzhou, the place Gao had lived.
On his household bookshelf nonetheless relaxation the letters and presents offered to Gao by college college students from throughout the nation a long time in the past, together with a certificates for an asteroid named in honor of Gao by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center in 1999.