Pursuit of Science and Technology in a Family

By Chen Hongbiao, Murong Mengyi

A family in Hangzhou is proud of its destiny with science and technology. The great grandfather studied abroad on government grants. So did the grandfather. The father studied abroad at his own expenses and started a high-tech business. The youngest-generation son is now an IT engineer in Hangzhou. The family legend about science lasted for about 100 years.

We interviewed Wang Qidong, a professor with Zhejiang University, eight years ago. At that time, the professor was 81. Three postgraduates were studying under his guidance; he was in charge of a number of research projects. In 2009, the 89-year-scientist is still engaged in two research projects: one is about hydrogen fuel, a project sponsored by the provincial science and technology authorities; the other one is a brand new project still in an initial phase.

Wang Qidongs father was Wang Jin, born in1888. Wang Jins father Wang Shijun was a county magistrate in Fujian Province. The son grew up witnessing the great empire coming apart. He became aware of the urgency to help the nation stand up again through reform and self-help projects. In 1906 Wang Jin was sent to Beijing to learn English in a language school.

One year before he was about to graduate from the school, the American government was recruiting Chinese students to study in America on government grants. Wang Jin did not sign up for the entrance examination at first for fear that he had never studied science and would stand no chance. Encouraged by the father of his two best friends in the school, Wang Jin took the test. He came out the second and was enrolled.

His father did not want him to go. His father had already retired. Wang Jin was about the age to get married. He had one year to go before graduation and he was looking forward to a good job with good pay after graduation, which would mean a lot to the family back in Fujian. Moreover, the study in America would at least take seven years (three years in high school and four years in college). Wang Jin and his father hesitated. The father of the school friends again played a key role. He talked to Wang Jin. Wang Jin decided to go.

Wang Jin came back to China in 1915, a year when China was setting up colleges and universities across the country in a bid to imitate the world powers and modernize the ancient empire. He worked as a college teacher for years before he set up the chemical research institute under the central academy in Shanghai in 1928. The institute played a key part in helping the nations chemical industry break the ground.

In 1934, Wang Jin went back to America to take a graduate course. After attaining a masters degree, he came back to China and continued his teaching career. After 1949, he was on the CPPCC Zhejiang committee for years and served as vice president of the third CPPCC provincial congress. State leaders such as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai consulted him on education issues.

Wang Qidong followed his fathers footsteps in the 1940s. While Wang and his sister were still in America, the Peoples Republic China came into being in 1949. Wang Jin wrote to them, saying that the new China was full of vigor and that China was seeing a rare opportunity to come back as a respected nation. The father hoped they would come back to help the reconstruction. Wang Qidong came back to China in January, 1951 after he acquired his PhD degree without waiting for the graduation ceremony a month later.

In 1952, the 31-year-old Wang Qidong founded the hot-working major at Zhejiang University. In 1958, he founded the department of metallurgy at Zhejiang University. In 1979, the building material and engineering department came into being under his guidance at Zhejiang University. This department is now Chinas most full-fledged incubator of material engineers.

Wang Yuping is Wang Qidongs son. He and his younger sister went to America in 1989. Wang Yuping was 40 years old that year. With adequate knowledge of the English language taught by his father, Wang Yuping went to a university in California. Wang Qidong gave his son and daughter each 6,000 dollars as tuition and living expenses for the first 6 months in America. The father asked them to do their best in USA. If they failed to complete their education on their own, they could come back.

Wang Yuping studied telecommunications. In 1994 he came back to Hangzhou and started an IT business with a few friends. The company later merged with UTStarcom, a Hangzhou-based business that made smart phones. The business prospered and got listed at NASDAQ. He later started another IT manufacture business.

Wang Zixing, Wang Yupings son, graduated from Zhejiang University in 2000. Instead of going abroad like his father, grandfather and great grandfather, he chose to stay in Hangzhou in his pursuit of science and technology. He did so on the grounds that things had changed so much that the Internet in China opened up a world unavailable to his forefathers.

In 2006, Wang Zixing became an Internet engineer with Zhejiang Science and Technology Museum. He operates an online digital museum of science and knowledge. He taps into resources on the internet to further spread the knowledge of science and technology. Now, he plans to develop a game focused on science and entertainment to attract youngsters attention.

Wang Zixing feels that his new ambition enables him to identify with the dreams of his forefathers: make China better through science and technology. He wants to popularize science. □