China and Albert Einstein : the reception of the physicist and his theory in China 1917-1979 / Danian Hu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hu, Danian, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Relativity (Physics).

China--History--May Fourth movement, 1919.

China.

Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955--Influence.

Einstein, Albert.

Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955--Travel--China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This is the first extensive study in English or Chinese of China's reception of the celebrated physicist and his theory of relativity. In a series of biographical studies of Chinese physicists, Hu describes the Chinese assimilation of relativity and explains how Chinese physicists offered arguments and theories of their own. Hu's account concludes with the troubling story of the fate of foreign ideas such as Einstein's in the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when the theory of relativity was denigrated along with Einstein's ideas on democracy and world peace.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Prologue

1. Western Physics Comes to China

2. China Embraces the Theory of Relativity

3. Six Pioneers of Relativity

4. From Eminent Physicist to the "Poor Philosopher"

5. Einstein: A Hero Reborn from the Criticism

Epilogue

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674038882

0674038886

OCLC:

435542250