The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Lin Sen, who was reading the manuscript, heard Needham speak fluent Chinese, and asked curiously, "Who is this gentleman?"

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

Joseph Needham quickly shook hands and said, "Hello, Chairman Lin, I am here to represent the Royal Society of Britain to carry out scientific and technological support work in China."

Lin Sen said with a smile: "Thank you, Professor Li, for your support to the Chinese people. If you need help, just ask."

Zhou Hexuan greeted: "The two of you should sit down first and then talk."

Joseph Needham sat on the sofa and explained in detail the purpose of his visit: "I have been in China's Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan and other provinces for more than half a year, and visited many universities and scholars in China. I deeply admire them, but their dire 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 said with a sigh: "This is the government's negligence. It cannot create a good research environment for scientists."

Joseph Needham continued: "I want to establish a science and technology aid organization in Chongqing. The purpose of this organization is roughly 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. ; thirdly, to export Chinese scientific and technological literature to the West; fourthly, to provide consulting services for Chinese scientific teams; fifthly, to help Chinese scientists achieve mutual exchanges within the country.”

"This is a good thing!" Zhou Hexuan said happily.

Lin Sen also said: "Professor Li's move will definitely help Chinese science flourish."

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

Zhou Hexuan thought for a while and said: "All the properties under my name have been leased and sold. Just a while ago, "Fei Gong" stopped publication, and the location of the editorial department was rented to a tabloid, and two of the rooms are still vacant. Professor Li please temporarily Let me be wronged, and use those two office rooms as the institutional residence."

"Two office rooms are enough, after all, we are just a start-up." Needham was quite happy.

Historically, Needham couldn't find a house, so he had to borrow the side room of the British embassy to work, which was very inconvenient because it was narrow and dilapidated. It was not until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War that the office building allocated by the government was officially completed.

Zhou Hexuan said: "As for translation talents, it is easier to deal with. There are many intellectuals in China who are unemployed, as long as they publish recruitment information in newspapers."

Joseph Needham added: "I have another unfeeling request. I hope that Mr. Zhou can take up a position in this organization."

"No problem." Zhou Hexuan readily agreed.

The institution that Joseph Needham is about to establish is called the "Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum", which purchased a large amount of materials for Chinese scientific research institutions during the Anti-Japanese War. For example, the rare gases 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 physicists at Southwest Associated University, the colchicine urgently needed by the Sichuan Agricultural Experiment Station, and so on.

The money needed to purchase these materials was basically paid 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 cause the plane to crash and kill people.

Over the past few 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, Joseph Needham also asked his friends in the UK to initiate a fundraiser under the condition of insufficient funds. The British people donated more than 7,000 pounds of books through the China-UK Science Cooperation Museum. Later, funding and transportation were very tight, so 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 was when Needham personally delivered books to Henan University, but encountered Japanese invaders on the way, and all scientific and technical books and periodicals were burned by the invaders. Needham escaped by chance, and was very frustrated because although Henan University ran schools in caves and ruined temples, it had first-class scientific research teachers, but it didn't even have a single scientific book.

The work of Joseph Needham and the Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum is not limited to these. They have recommended 138 Chinese papers to be published in the West, arranged more than 30 cultural and scientific research personnel to visit and exchange in the UK, and assisted the Ministry of Education in selecting and sending 67 Chinese students to the UK. study further.

It was Needham's efforts that brought the Chinese scientific community back into contact 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 next period of time, Needham traveled back and forth between the British Embassy and the Zhou Residence, and with the help of Zhou Hexuan, he completed the preparations for the Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum.

Although Zhou Hexuan stayed at home, hundreds of telegrams and letters were sent out, and universities and research institutes in various places were soon notified. Some institutions also take the initiative to send people over to help with the English-Chinese translation of scientific research documents. There are also some scientists who can't wait to send papers, asking 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 and Zhou Hexuan as the deputy director, and received a start-up fund of 10,000 pounds.

The first project of the Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum is to translate the information on "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 right was shared by Zhou Hexuan, Southwest Associated University, Jinling University Agricultural College and Central University Agricultural College, and was permanently licensed to all British people for free.

Reciprocate, since the British have selflessly helped, we Chinese can't be ambiguous.

This is a choice of benefits without cost. Anyway, during the Anti-Japanese War, it was impossible to collect patent fees abroad. It is better to show 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 also received 333 orders from various scientific research institutions in China, all of which were basic scientific research instruments and chemical reagents. Needham immediately started to process it. 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, and settled 103 orders for scientific research equipment and chemical reagents. One of the high-speed electronic oscillators cost a lot. Although he was rich in the past, he couldn't transport it. This time, the air forces of the United States and the United Kingdom helped to transport it.

By the way, affected by the war, the pharmaceutical companies in the UK have already made crazy profits.

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