Abstract
In the history of science during the cold war, the International Geophysical Year (IGY) 1957–58 often has been viewed as a great success story of global scientific collaboration across the Iron Curtain, with the only exception being the withdrawal of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from the endeavor when the IGY organizers admitted Taiwan in 1957. Thanks to research by Ronald Doel, we now know that the U.S. State Department played a central role in the controversy by prompting Taiwan to apply for IGY membership, but little is known about the mainland Chinese side of the story.2 In this essay we propose to examine Chinese sources to reconstruct the considerations that led China to join the IGY in the first place and the reactions to the Taiwanese issue that eventually led to its withdrawal. We will also examine the impact of the IGY on Chinese geophysical research even after its formal withdrawal from the collaboration.
We express our thanks to the late Dr. Zhu Gangkun of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for an informative interview on his experiences related to China and the IGY during the 1950s, to organizers and participants at the October 2007 “Making Science Global” conference at the Smithsonian Institution for encouragement and constructive feedback, and to Wang Yangzong, Zhang Li, Pan Tao, Ronald Doel, and Rip Bulkeley for helpful discussions and assistance with materials.
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Notes
Ronald E. Doel, Dieter Hoffmann, and Nikolai Krementsov, “National States and International Science: A Comparative History of International Science Congresses in Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, and Cold War United States,” Osiris 20 (2005): 49–76.
Zhu Kezhen, “Emeishan Taishan guoji jinian guance baogao bianyan” (introduction to Report on the Measurements for the International Polar Year Carried out at Emei and Tai Mountains), 1935, reprinted in Zhu Kezhen, Zhu Kezhen quanji (the complete works of Coching Chu), vol. 2 (Shanghai: Shanghai Scientific and Technological Education Press, 2004), 277–278. On Zhu, see also Zuoyue Wang, “Saving China through Science: The Science Society of China, Scientific Nationalism, and Civil Society in Republican China,” Osiris 17 (2002): 291–322.
Walter Sullivan, Assault on the Unknown: The International Geophysical Year (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961), 36–37.
Xue Weimin, ed., Dangdai zhongguo de qixiang shiye (meteorological services in contemporary China) (Beijing: Chinese Social Science Press, 1984), 402.
CAS, “Guanyu ‘guoji diqiu wuli nian,’ ” June 30, 1956. On Soviet decision to join the IGY, see Rip Bulkeley, “Aspects of the Soviet IGY,” Russian Journal of Earth Sciences 10, no. 1 (2008): ES1003, available online at: http://elpub.wdcb.ru/journals/rjes/v10/2007ES000249/2007ES000249.pdf.
Zhu diary for June 30, 1955, in Zhu Kezhen riji, vol. 3, 574–575. In January 1957, Tu was promoted to be a vice chair, and several others were added as members. See Wang Zhongjun, ed., Zhongguo kexueyuan shishi huiyao 1955 nian (major events in the history of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1955) (Beijing: Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1995), 8, 26–27.
Wen Kegang et al., Tu Changwang zhuan (biography of Tu Changwang) (Beijing: Contemporary China Press, 1997), 451.
Zhu to Bardin, July 24 and October 27, 1956, in Zhu Kezhen, Zhu Kezhen quanji (collected works of Zhu Kezhen), vol. 3 (Shanghai: Shanghai Scientific and Technological Education Press, 2004), 305, 308.
CAS to State Council, January 25, 1957, in Xue Pangao and Ji Chuqing, eds., Zhongguo kexueyuan shishi huiyao 1957 nian (major events in the history of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1957) (Beijing: Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1998), 25–27.
Zhou Hang, “Woguo canjia guoji diqiu wulinian de gongzuo jihua” (our country’s working plan for participation in the IGY), Kexue tongbao 6 (March 27, 1957): 185–186.
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© 2010 Roger D. Launius, James Rodger Fleming, and David H. DeVorkin
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Wang, Z., Zhang, J. (2010). China and the International Geophysical Year. In: Launius, R.D., Fleming, J.R., DeVorkin, D.H. (eds) Globalizing Polar Science. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230114654_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230114654_9
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