Lin Sen, who was reading the manuscript, heard that Needham spoke fluent Chinese and couldn't help but curiously asked: "Who is this gentleman?"
"This is Mr. Joseph Needham, a British biochemist and professor at Cambridge University. His Chinese name is Joseph Needham," Zhou Hexuan said and introduced Joseph Needham, "Professor Li, this is Mr. Lin Sen, Chairman of the Republic of China.
"
Needham quickly shook hands and said: "Hello, Chairman Lin, I am here to carry out scientific and technological support work in China on behalf of the Royal Society."
Lin Sen smiled and said: "Thank you Professor Li for your support to the Chinese people. If you need any help, just ask."
Zhou Hexuan greeted: "You two should sit down first and then talk."
Needham sat on the sofa and explained his intention in detail: "I have been inspecting Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan and other provinces in China for more than half a year, and visited many universities and scholars in China. The hard-working and tenacious spirit of Chinese scholars impressed me.
I deeply admire them, but their terrible situation also makes me very sad and uncomfortable. Now the Chinese scientific community is in a closed state and is separated from the world's scientific community. Even the latest Western journals cannot be purchased."
Lin Sen sighed and said: "This is a failure of the government to create a good research environment for scientists."
Needham continued: "I want to establish a science and technology aid organization in Chongqing. The purpose of this organization is roughly the following: first, to maintain the connection between China and the world's scientific community; second, to provide necessary scientific research materials to the Chinese scientific community.
; Third, export Chinese scientific and technological literature to the West; Fourth, provide consulting services to Chinese scientific teams; Fifth, help Chinese scientists achieve domestic exchanges."
"This is a good thing!" Zhou Hexuan said happily.
Lin Sen also said: "Professor Li's move will definitely help Chinese science flourish."
Needham said: "The British Ambassador to China, Sir Horace Seymour, is very supportive of my idea. He has called the British government and believes that it will be approved soon. The Chinese Executive Yuan and the Association for the Promotion of Defense Science are also very supportive, but
This kind of support is only attitudinal. Housing in Chongqing is very tight now, and I urgently need a stable office location, and I also need to recruit manpower. For example, to translate Chinese scientific results and literature into English, professional translators are needed."
Zhou Hexuan thought for a while and said: "All the properties under my name have been rented and sold. It happened that "Fei Gong" stopped publishing some time ago. The location of the editorial department was rented to a tabloid, and two of the rooms are still empty. Please ask Professor Li temporarily
I feel aggrieved and use those two script rooms as the residence of the institution."
"Two writing rooms are enough. After all, we are just a start-up." Joseph Needham was quite happy.
Historically, Joseph Needham could not find a house, so he had to borrow a side room of the British Embassy to work. It was narrow and dilapidated and extremely inconvenient. It was not until the Anti-Japanese War was almost won that the office building built with government funds was officially completed.
Zhou Hexuan said: "As for translators, it would be easier. There are many intellectuals unemployed in China. All you need to do is publish recruitment information in newspapers."
Joseph Needham added: "I have another unkind request. I hope Mr. Zhou can hold a position in this organization."
"No problem." Zhou Hexuan agreed readily.
The institution that Needham is about to establish is called the "Sino-British Scientific Cooperation Center". During the Anti-Japanese War, it purchased a large amount of materials for Chinese scientific research institutions. For example, rare gases urgently needed by the Radio Research Institute of Tsinghua University, optical glass urgently needed by the Peking Research Institute, and physicists from Southwest Associated University
The high-speed electronic oscillator that we urgently need, the colchicine that the Sichuan Agricultural Experiment Station urgently needs, etc.
The money needed to purchase these supplies was basically advanced by Needham, and the British government gave an initial funding of 10,000 pounds. Moreover, transportation was also a big problem. It needed to be transported by air via the hump route, and sometimes accidents occurred and the aircraft was destroyed and people were killed.
In 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 documents, despite insufficient funds, Needham also asked friends in the UK to initiate a fundraiser. The British people donated more than 7,000 pounds of books through the Sino-British Science Cooperation Center. Later, funding and transportation were very tight.
Needham simply shipped scientific journals to China on microfilm. There were 167 kinds of these "film magazines" alone.
The most dangerous time was when Needham personally delivered books to Henan University. As a result, he 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 depressed because although Henan University ran schools in caves and ruined temples, scientific research was
The teaching staff is top-notch, but there is not even a single science and technology book.
The work of Joseph Needham and the Sino-British Science Cooperation Center does not stop there. They recommended a total of 138 Chinese papers for publication in the West, arranged for more than 30 cultural and scientific researchers to visit and exchange in the UK, and assisted the Ministry of Education in selecting 67 Chinese students to study in the UK.
further study.
It was Needham's efforts that allowed the Chinese scientific community to regain 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 following period, Needham traveled back and forth between the British Embassy and Zhou's 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 around the country were quickly notified. Some institutions even took the initiative to send people to help, translating scientific research documents into English and Chinese. There were also some scientists.
He couldn't wait to send the paper and asked Joseph Needham to send it abroad for publication.
In June 1943, the British government officially approved the establishment of the Sino-British Science Cooperation Center, with Joseph Needham as the director and Zhou Hexuan as the deputy director, and received a start-up capital of 10,000 pounds.
The first project of the Sino-British Science Cooperation Center is to translate the information on "scientific chicken raising" into English and send the technology to the West to help British friends. Joseph Needham agreed to apply for a patent for the scientific chicken raising technology, and the patent rights were granted by Zhou Hexuan, Southwest United
It is owned by the College of Agriculture of Jinling University and the College of Agriculture of Central University, and is permanently licensed to all British people free of charge.
To reciprocate the favor, since the British help selflessly, we Chinese cannot be vague.
This was a cost-effective choice. Since it was impossible to collect patent fees abroad during the Anti-Japanese War, it was 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 Center 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 processing. Although he did not have enough money, the first batch was
77 copies were ordered, procured in Calcutta by the British Intelligence Service.
Zhou Hexuan also sent a telegram to Vivien Leigh and asked her father to donate 50,000 pounds, and secured 103 orders for scientific research instruments and chemical reagents. Among them, a high-speed electronic oscillator cost a huge amount. Although he had money before, he could not transport it.
This time, the American and British air forces helped transport it.
By the way, due to the war, pharmaceutical companies in the UK have made crazy profits.
Now Vivien Leigh's father is shouting all day long to ask Zhou Hexuan to go to the UK, because Zhou Hexuan is the major shareholder and his signature is needed to list the pharmaceutical company.
