The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China - Chapter 1031

   Lin Sen, who was reading the manuscript, heard Needham’s fluent Chinese, and couldn’t help but wonder, “Who is this gentleman?”

“This is Mr. Joseph Needham, a British biochemist and a professor at Cambridge University. His Chinese name is Joseph Needham,” Zhou Hexuan said, and then introduced him to Needham, “Professor Li, this is Mr. Lin Sen, Chairman of the Republic of China. “

  Needham shook hands quickly and said, “Hello, Chairman Lin, I came to China this time to carry out scientific and technological support work in China on behalf of the Royal Society.”

  Lin Sen said with a smile: “Thank you Professor Li for his support to the Chinese people. Feel free to speak up if you need any help.”

   Zhou Hexuan greeted: “The two of you should sit down first and then talk about it.”

Needham sat on the sofa and explained his purpose in detail: “I spent more than half a year in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan and other provinces in China, and visited many universities and scholars in China. The hard-working, tenacious and diligent spirit of Chinese scholars makes me I deeply admire them, but their bad situation also makes me very sad. Now the Chinese scientific community is in a closed state, separated from the world scientific community, and even the latest Western journals cannot be bought.”

   Lin Sen sighed and said, “This is the government’s dereliction of duty. It cannot create a good research environment for scientists.”

Needham continued: “I want to set up a science and technology aid organization in Chongqing. The purpose of this organization is as follows: first, to maintain the connection between China and the world’s scientific community; second, to provide the Chinese scientific community with necessary scientific research materials ; third, export Chinese scientific and technological literature to the West; fourth, provide consulting services for Chinese scientific teams; fifth, help Chinese scientists to communicate with each other at home.”

   “This is a good thing!” Zhou Hexuan said happily.

  Lin Sen also said: “Professor Li’s move will definitely help Chinese science flourish.”

Needham said: “Sir Horace Seymour, the British ambassador to China, is very supportive of my idea. He has called the British government and believes that it will be approved soon. The Chinese Executive Yuan and the National Defense Science Promotion Association are also very supportive, but This kind of support is just an attitude. Now the housing in Chongqing is very tight, I urgently need a stable office location, and I also need to convene people. For example, translating Chinese scientific achievements and literature into English requires professional translators.”

Zhou Hexuan thought for a while and said, “All the properties under my name have been leased and sold. It happened that “Fei Gong” stopped publication some time ago, and the editorial office was rented to a tabloid, and two of the rooms are still vacant. Please Professor Li for the time being. Feel wronged and use those two offices as institutional residences.”

   “Two writing rooms are enough, after all, we are just a start-up.” Needham was quite happy.

   Historically, Needham couldn’t find a house, so he could only borrow the side room of the British embassy for office, which was very cramped and dilapidated and extremely inconvenient. It was not until the war of resistance against Japan was almost won that the government-funded office building was officially completed.

   Zhou Hexuan said: “As for translation talents, it is even better. There are many intellectuals in China now unemployed, as long as the recruitment information is published in the newspaper.”

  Needham added: “I still have an unkind request, I hope Mr. Zhou can hold a position in this institution.”

   “No problem.” Zhou Hexuan readily agreed.

  This institution that Needham is about to set up is called the “Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum”, which purchased a lot of materials for Chinese scientific research institutions during the Anti-Japanese War. For example, the rare gas urgently needed by the Radio Research Institute of Tsinghua University, the optical glass urgently needed by the Peking Research Institute, the high-speed electronic oscillator urgently needed by the physicists of the Southwest Associated University, and the colchicine urgently needed by the Sichuan Agricultural Experiment Station.

   The money needed to purchase these materials was basically paid in advance by Needham, and the British government gave an initial funding of 10,000 pounds. And transportation is also a big problem. It needs to be transported by air on the hump route, and sometimes accidents will kill people.

   Over the years, Needham visited 10 provinces in China, 296 universities and scientific research institutions, delivered more than 200 speeches, and traveled more than 25,000 kilometers.

   In order to allow Chinese scholars to read Western books and literature, Needham also invited friends in the UK to initiate fundraising when funds were insufficient. The British people donated more than 7,000 pounds of books through the Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum. Later, funds and transportation were very tight. Needham simply shipped scientific journals to China in the form of microfilm. There are 167 kinds of these “film magazines” alone.

  The most dangerous time, Needham personally delivered books to Henan University, but encountered Japanese invaders on the way, and all the scientific and technological books were burned by the invaders. Needham escaped by chance and was very depressed, because although Henan University runs schools in caves and broken temples, it has first-class scientific research faculty and does not even have a single scientific and technological book.

Needham and the Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum did more than that. They recommended a total of 138 Chinese papers for publication in the West, arranged more than 30 cultural and scientific researchers to visit and exchange in the UK, and assisted the Ministry of Education in selecting and sending 67 Chinese students to the UK. further study.

   It was Needham’s efforts that allowed the Chinese scientific community to reconnect with the world during the Anti-Japanese War, and accelerated China’s scientific development in the years before and after the Anti-Japanese War.

  …

   In the following period, Needham went back and forth between the British Embassy and the Zhou residence, and with the help of Zhou Hexuan, completed the preparations for the Sino-British Science Cooperation Pavilion.

   Although Zhou Hexuan stayed at home, hundreds of telegrams and letters were sent, and they were soon notified to universities and research institutes around the country. Some institutions also took the initiative to send people over to help, to do the English-Chinese translation of scientific research documents. There are also some scientists who can’t wait to send papers and ask Needham to send them abroad for publication.

  In June 1943, the British government officially approved the establishment of the Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum, with Joseph Needham as the director, Zhou Hexuan as the deputy director, and a start-up fund of 10,000 pounds.

The first project of the    Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum is to translate the materials of “Scientific Chicken Raising” into English, and send the technology to the West to help British friends. Needham agreed to apply for a patent for the scientific chicken raising technology. The patent rights are shared by Zhou Hexuan, Southwest Associated University, Agricultural College of Jinling University and Agricultural College of Central University, and will be permanently licensed to all British people for free.

  Returning the favor, since the British help selflessly, we Chinese can’t be vague.

   This is a choice that benefits and does not cost. Anyway, during the Anti-Japanese War, it was impossible to collect patent fees abroad. It is better to release goodwill to the British government in exchange for more scientific research resources to develop itself.

   At the same time, the Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum has also received 333 orders from various scientific research institutions in China, all of which are basic scientific research instruments and chemical reagents. Needham immediately went to work. Although he didn’t have enough money, he ordered 77 of them in the first batch, and the British Intelligence Department was responsible for purchasing them in Calcutta.

   Zhou Hexuan also sent a telegram to ask Vivien Leigh’s father to donate 50,000 pounds, securing 103 orders for scientific research instruments and chemical reagents, one of which cost a lot of money for a high-speed electronic oscillator. Although he had money before, he couldn’t transport it. This time, the air force of the United States and the United Kingdom helped to transport it.

  By the way, affected by the war, the pharmaceutical factories in the UK have made crazy money.

   Now Vivien Leigh’s father is calling Zhou Hexuan to go to the UK all day long, because Zhou Hexuan is a major shareholder and needs his signature to list the pharmaceutical company.