Modern China Lecture Explores the Life of Fang Lizhi

SAN BERNARDINO >> The late Fang Lizhi is arguably one of the most prominent among scientists of the People’s Republic of China. An astrophysicist by training, he was hand-picked to work on China’s atomic bomb in the 1950s but ended up three decades later listed an “enemy of the state,” expelled from the Chinese Communist Party, and forced into exile. A talk on Fang’s life, “Does Science Imply Human Rights? The Life and Thought of Fang Lizhi, a Guest Lecture with Dr. Perry Link (UC Riverside)” took place at CSUSB's John M. Pfau Library, room, PL-4005. The event, part of the Modern China Lecture Series, was free and open to the public. Link is the translator of Fang’s autobiography, “The Most Wanted Man in China: My Journey from Scientist to Enemy of the State” (Henry Holt, 2016). Jeremy Murray, assistant professor in history at CSUSB and organizer of the lecture series, now in its third year, considered Link’s talk a fitting conclusion to this year’s series. “Link is one of the most prominent and insightful American voices on China today, and we’re fortunate to hear his views on China in this venue,” Murray said. “Link’s work as a scholar and a public intellectual are inspiring, and the event promises to be both thought-provoking and entertaining.” Fang, who died on April 7, 2012 in Arizona at the age of 76, wrote step-by-step in his autobiography how his pursuit of science and his faith in Marxism came into conflict, and how one eventually deconstructed the other. At the start of his career, Fang was a loyal Communist Party member working in the Chinese nuclear program, but was ousted during Mao Zedong’s “Anti-Rightist Campaign,” a movement against intellectuals and others who were seen to have strayed from Communist principles. His offense was writing an essay criticizing political interference in scientific research, which was drafted in response to the “Hundred Flowers Campaign,” when the party encouraged people to openly express their concerns and criticisms. In 1958, Fang was reassigned to the University of Science and Technology of China. During the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966, he was sentenced to hard labor, as many of China’s intellectuals were. By 1978, he returned to USTC as a full professor, and in 1984 he was named vice president of the university. In the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre in the summer of 1989, the Chinese government accused Fang and his wife, Li Shuxian, as being the leaders of the movement and issued a warrant for their arrest. The couple sought refuge at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, where they remained for 13 months until the Chinese authorities finally allowed them to leave the country. After leaving China in 1990, Fang was a guest professor of the Royal Society at Cambridge and the following year was Director's Visitor at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. In 1992, Fang joined the University of Arizona as professor of physics, spending 20 years on its faculty. Link, the guest speaker, retired from Princeton University and now teaches at the University of California, Riverside. He writes and teaches about Chinese language, literature, popular culture, and politics. His latest book is “An Anatomy of Chinese: Rhythm, Metaphor, Politics” (Harvard, 2013). Link previously spoke at CSUSB in November 2014, when he presented a talk on Liu Xiaobo, winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize; Link co-edited Liu’s “No Enemies, No Hatred” (Belknap, 2013). The Modern China Lecture Series was initiated to promote awareness of important issues related to China for those on the CSUSB campus and in the community. In the series of more than 20 lectures, workshops, and roundtable forums since January 2014, China scholars from UC San Diego, UC Riverside, the Claremont Colleges, UCLA, USC, and other institutions have visited the CSUSB campus to share their expertise and opinions. Speakers have included specialists in history, economics, political science, philosophy, finance, security studies, literature, anthropology, and other fields. The Modern China Lecture Series is sponsored by the CSUSB History Club/Phi Alpha Theta Chapter, the CSUSB Department of History, the Intellectual Life Fund, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the College of Extended Learning, the John M. Pfau Library, the College of Business and Public Administration, the departments of sociology and anthropology, and the University Diversity Committee.