The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Who is Zhou Peiyuan?

Students majoring in physics in later generations must be very familiar with him. This gentleman is the founder of modern Chinese mechanics and one of the founders of theoretical physics. In the future, he will also serve as the dean of Tsinghua University, the president of Peking University, and the vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Seeing doubts on Xu Zhimo and others, Zhou Peiyuan explained: "To put it more simply, the earth has gravitational force, and the objects we throw will fall back to the ground. However, the greater the initial velocity of throwing the object, the object will fall to the ground. The farther you fly. When the air resistance is small enough and the speed is high enough, the object will never fall back to the ground, and it will revolve around the earth and become a satellite orbiting the earth."

"Like the moon?" Lin Huiyin asked in surprise.

Zhou Peiyuan nodded and said: "Yes, the moon is also a satellite of the earth. If humans can create an object orbiting the earth, then this object can be called an artificial earth satellite. That's why I said that the book "Titanic" is very interesting. Those future technologies that seem whimsical can actually be explained by scientific theories.”

Deng Shucun said with a smile: "Airplanes and submarines in the past were just imaginations in science fiction novels, but now they are still a reality? Let me tell you, literature is also one of the driving forces of science."

"This man-made satellite theory was proposed by Mr. Zhou?" Feng Wenbing asked curiously.

Zhou Peiyuan thought for a while and said: "To be exact, it was Newton who proposed it first. Mr. Newton made a conjecture that when a cannonball is fired on a high mountain, the greater the speed of the cannonball, the farther it will fall. Since the earth is round, when the cannonball When the velocity reaches a certain level, the shell will not fall. This idea is called 'Newton's cannon'."

Xu Zhimo clapped his hands and praised: "Niu Weng is really an amazing person! This man-made earth satellite can really be manufactured, right?"

Zhou Peiyuan thought carefully: "It's very difficult. The gravity of the sun and the moon, the gravity of the earth, and the resistance of the atmosphere are very complicated. The most important thing is how to make the artificial earth satellite have enough initial velocity. The means are difficult to achieve.”

Today, Zhou Peiyuan is already conducting research on quantum mechanics. In a few years, he will go to Princeton Institute for Advanced Study in the United States to conduct theoretical physics research, and participate in the general relativity seminar led by Einstein himself, and engage in research on the theory of relativity, gravitation and cosmology.

Until the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhou Peiyuan, adhering to the ambition of saving the country through science, resolutely turned his research direction to fluid mechanics, which is related to rockets and artificial satellites.

Zhou Peiyuan is very interested in the artificial satellite in "Titanic", but unfortunately there are a lot of liberal arts and engineering students here, so it is impossible to discuss science topics with him in depth.

Xu Zhimo and the others were still talking about literature, and the political circle had finished discussing the dispute between Ning and Guangdong. Chen Daisun suddenly asked, "I heard that brother Meng He is planning to go to Europe recently?"

"Leaving next month," Tao Menghe said with a smile, "the World Social and Economic Conference will be held in The Hague, Netherlands, and I'm invited to attend."

Chen Daisun himself is an economist, and he said enviously: "Brother Menghe is still influential, and the World Social and Economic Conference has invited you. Are there any new research results?"

Tao Menghe said: "A survey report has just been completed, and the research object is China's industry and workers."

"Oh, tell me, brother Menghe." Chen Daisun was very interested in this.

Tao Menghe said: "China's industrial development is very deformed. Most of the workers are concentrated in light industrial factories, mainly textiles, followed by mines and railways. In order to gain profits, capitalists hire a large number of female workers and child labor with relatively low wages. This phenomenon is especially common in foreign-funded companies. The number of female workers is increasing very fast. Ten years ago, female workers accounted for only one-third of the total number of workers in the country. This figure has now become 45.7%. Child labor has always been used in the light industry sector, and It is developing in the direction of younger age, I visited six big cities in this survey, and the youngest child laborer is only 6 years old!"

Chen Daisun said with a wry smile: "Capitalists, for the sake of profit, they don't care about child labor or not, whether it's in Europe or America."

Tao Menghe also said: "China and the United States are still somewhat different. The specific situation is even worse. The traditional bonded labor and apprenticeship system have also continued in modern factories. Some poor families, in order to let their children learn how to make a living. Take the initiative to send them to the factory as apprentices. Apprentices have to learn from teachers in the factory. At the beginning, they can only do odd jobs. They have no wages for a year or several years. Only after they are approved by the factory and the master can they start from the meager wages. Some are even cruel Master, you should also withhold the wages of apprentices. This situation mainly occurs in Japanese-owned factories, and the Japanese call factory apprentices 'trainees'."

When Xu Zhimo heard the topic discussed here, he immediately said angrily: "It's really unreasonable, the Japanese are too hateful!"

“What is even more hateful is the bonded labor,” Tao Menghe said. “Bodied workers mainly appear in the mining and textile industries. Some mining companies all use bonded workers, and even large-scale new mining companies have 27% to 77% of bonded workers. The second is the cotton mill. The boss often sends people to the countryside to recruit workers, taking advantage of the ignorance of the villagers to exploit them. These bonded workers have no personal freedom at all, and the labor intensity is extremely high, but they can only get meager wages and even lead an inhuman life. Live as a slave, being squeezed dry of every drop of blood flowing from your body by the capitalists."

Everyone was dumbfounded by Tao Menghe's words, and Jin Yuelin was surprised: "What is the difference between these bonded workers and the black slaves in the United States?"

"There is still a difference," Tao Menghe said, "Black slaves are the private property of slave owners, just like we raise chickens and cattle, we must take good care of them, and we cannot let the animals die easily. The treatment of bonded workers is much worse. , They were coerced by force, so they had to work around the clock in factories and mines, dying of exhaustion, sickness, and beating to death were all very common, anyway, if one bonded worker died, ten more could be recruited.”

Everyone listened silently, the Chinese bonded laborers were not as good as the American black slaves, but they were powerless to change the bad status quo.

...

When Lin Huiyin opened a salon at home, "Titanic", which is called "Love Ark" in Chinese, quickly became a hit in big cities in the north and south. The sales situation is many times better than that of "Guns, Germs, and Steel". After all, academic monographs have a narrow audience, while recreational romance novels are aimed at the general public.

Especially those young girls, progressive youths and deep-seated women, they especially ate the set of "Titanic", which sold more than 30,000 copies in a few days.

Compared with Zhang Henshui's serial "The Family of Gold Fans", "Titanic" is a bit more exotic. It is normal to be able to sell well.

Mao Dun also published a review article on the "Literature Herald", the official publication of the Leftist League: "Mr. Zhou's "Love Ark" (formerly known as "Titanic") is not just a novel for entertainment. We want to see The author's critique of feudal ethics shows that the heroes and heroines are determined to pursue love and freedom, and see the truth, kindness, and beauty in human nature. When disaster strikes, except for a small number of morally corrupt people, people leave their hope of life to Women and children, this is a rare brilliance of humanity..."

Lu Xun did not write a book review specifically, but he also mentioned this book in his essays, and the evaluation he gave tended to be positive.

As for our Peking University belle Ma Jue, he reads "Love Ark" repeatedly these days, and admires Mr. Zhou Da to the bone.