Love China, But Not the Bomb: Toward A Cultural History of Western-educated Chinese Scientists

Abstract

Building on the author's own research experience in writing the life of one Chinese nuclear physicist, this paper discusses the conflict between his life and two narrative conventions that constrain the writing of biographies of western-educated Chinese scientists--biographies of "great men" and biographies of "great patriots." Cultural history is proposed as an alternative approach to scientific biography in writing the life of scientific individuals. A cultural history narrative of Hoff Lu unfolds the tensions in the twentieth century China by exploring the meanings he himself conceived in the daily experience of his life, especially his experience of Peking opera, which are significant for interpreting his choice to quit the Chinese nuclear bomb program.