West & East
(monthly), "China's Outstanding Woman Nuclear Physicist—Dr. Wu Chien-hsiung" by Wu Tse-we—Dr. Wu Chien-hsiung, nuclear physicist of world fame, was an elementary school teacher for years after her graduation from the Provincial Second Girls' Normal School of Kiangsu. Her excellent scholastic record and exemplary teaching led the school to recommend her for higher education.
She entered the National Central University at Nanking in the autumn of 1930 to study physics. She had a happy college life. She was always optimistic, ambitious, and lively, yet also gentle. She held scholarships for three of the four years.
After graduation, she assisted briefly in the physics department, then went to the Institute of Physics of the Academia Sinica. While there, she began her nuclear research. With another outstanding woman physicist, Dr. Ku Ching-huei, she attempted to measure the spectrum of a certain gas at low temperature. Their work included the setting up of the apparatus, purification of the gas, and the obtaining of a near vacuum.
In the autumn of 1936, she took up the study of physics at the University of California at Berkeley. Her outstanding record won the attention of Nobel Prize winner Ernest Lawrence and she became his assistant. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received her Ph.D. in 1940. She then continued in research at the university.
In 1944, she was married to Dr. Luke Chia-liu Yuan, the grandson of Yuan Shih-kai, who also attended the U. of C. They have one son.
In 1942, Chien-hsiung became a teacher of physics at Smith College, one of the five most famous women's schools on the U.S. east coast. After a year there she became the first female professor in the history of Princeton University.
The Yuans took part in the Manhattan project of Columbia University, a project which contributed to the unleashing of the power in the atom, and remained at Columbia after World War II.
Chinese physicists Lee Tsung-dao and Yang Chen-ning challenged the law of parity which had been accepted as truth for 30 years. In 1956, Chien-hsiung, cooperating with radiation testing experts from the low temperature physics laboratory of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, provided the proof of the Lee-Yang thesis.
The law of parity was overthrown and Lee and Yang won the 1957 Nobel Prize in physics.
In 1957, Dr. Wu was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 1958, she was awarded the Research Cooperation Award, the first woman scientist to receive it. On June 17 of the same year, Princeton University gave her a doctorate of science. The citation called her "the foremost woman empirical physicist". She was promoted to full professorship.
In 1961, both Dr. Wu and her husband were elected members of the Academia Sinica. The following year she received the Franklin Research Institute medal. In 1963 the New York chapter of the American Association of University Women named her "woman of the year". That same year she found evidence to support another new keystone of science, the theory of conservation of vector currents.
In 1964, the Cultural Foundation of the Chia-hsin Cement Co. of the Republic of China gave her a citation and US$10,000 award. She came to Taipei in July of 1965. On the obverse side of the medal is a representation of Confucius, on the back one of Luo Tsu, the first Chinese woman scientist, spinning silk thousands of years ago. Dr. Wu gave the monetary award to a fund for young Chinese scientists.
War Without Frontline
The Rambler (monthly), "Two Cities in Tumultuous Asia" by Mrs. Anna Chennault—
As a journalist and writer, I have traveled to many places and written on a variety of subjects. Asia is still the most tumultuous region in the world.
Just last summer, I had another opportunity to visit this part of the world. Included on my itinerary were Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. Though these two capitals are geographically far apart, they face the same enemy and the same danger.
My visit to Seoul was for National Day ceremonies of the Republic of Korea August 15. My feelings were rather mixed on being just south of the 38th parallel. The rejection of General MacArthur's proposals to extend the Korean War into Manchuria cost many American and Korean lives and resulted in dishonorable and uneasy truce.
When I was in Korea, the treaty between South Korea and Japan to normalize their elations had won the support of the majority party. However, unrest and disorder ensued as a result of the protests of the opposition party and the demonstrations of students in Seoul and elsewhere.
President Park Chung Hee and Premier Chung It Kwon have done much in economic reconstruction and military buildup in the last two years.
Saigon is regarded as the rear of the frontline. But where is the line, anyway? The Viet Cong terrorists are no less a threat to Saigon than the Communist regulars in the countryside. I spent about a week in South Vietnam and stayed a few miles outside Saigon. Artillery thundered each evening, but I was assured that this shelling was by government units. This gave me a sense of security. In Vietnam silence may be a false tranquility in the deadly hours of the night.
I had the opportunity to talk with Premier Nguyen Cao Ky, who reaches his office by helicopter. The most urgent problem in Vietnam is political security, on which victory will largely depend. Washington's determination is important, too.
A war without a frontline, as in Vietnam, is hard to fight. The United States spending about US$2 million a day and is still building up its military forces.
However, the only U.S. objective is to seek peace, while neither Peiping nor Hanoi has any intention of living peacefully with their neighbors. Peiping's strategy is to strike whenever and wherever it can. The free Asian countries should pool their efforts and strengthen their fight against the Communists.
More Peiping Setbacks
Issues & Studies (monthly), "Chinese Communist Diplomatic Setbacks in Africa" by Chang Tung-tsai—
Peiping's "diplomatic" activities are only a kind of camouflage for infiltration and subversion. The resentment against white men harbored by the Africans has been fully exploited by the Chinese Reds in their propaganda.
The Peiping regime is doing its utmost to lure newly independent African countries into establishing diplomatic relations with it in an attempt to deal blows against the Republic of China, which has gained the diplomatic upper hand in Africa. Peiping also takes advantage of the old resentment of the African nationalists to stir up armed rebellions.
Chinese Communists have stepped up their activities in Africa. They have tried to tempt Africans with large amounts of money and weapons.
Peiping's diplomatic activities in Asia and Africa were Soviet-directed before the break with Moscow. Following deterioration of the Moscow-Peiping relationship, the Chinese Communists and the Russians became competitors. The Chinese Communists tried to win over African leaders to pave the way for their dominance of the second Afro-Asian Conference in Algiers. The indefinite postponement of that conference signaled the beginning of Peiping setbacks in Africa.
Gamal Abdul Nasser of the United Arab Republic opposed Peiping regarding the date of the conference and favored the participation of Moscow. Nasser even reacted mildly to Chou En-lai's anti-Americanism. President Julius K. Nyerere of Tanzania and President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, both painstakingly wooed by Peiping, deserted the Red Chinese cause. Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia declined to participate.
Peiping had hoped to entice and coerce African countries into establishing a new world body and sabotaging the Republic of China's rightful position in the United Nations. The postponement shattered Peiping's hopes.
In fact, Peiping's diplomatic setbacks in Africa did not start with the coup in Algeria. The Chinese Communists were blinded by overconfidence and neglected many warning signals. Africa is today no longer in favor of Peiping's program of violence and "revolution".
After learning about the Chinese Reds first hand, Burundi severed diplomatic relations and ordered Chinese Red diplomatic personnel to leave. Eleven of the 14 "Afro-Malagasy" bloc countries, including Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Niger, Upper Volta, Dahomey, and Togo, refused to participate in the conference. Such African leaders as Premier Moise Tshombe of the Congo (Leopoldville), President Felix Houphouet-Boigny of the Ivory Coast, and President Hamani Diori of Niger warned against Peiping's dangerous, criminal activities.
Such Peiping slogans as "revolution by violence" are no longer welcome in Africa. The majority of former colonies have gained independence. Africa has passed into the stage of national construction. Africans want economic assistance from European and American countries and even Soviet Russia, not the united front activities of "anti-imperialism" and "anti-colonialism" forced upon them by Peiping.
The Chinese Communists also are isolating themselves with their views on world peace and disarmament, the nuclear test ban, peaceful solution of international disputes, and the strengthening of the United Nations. More setbacks are awaiting Peiping in Africa.
Taiwan Writers
Wen Tan (Literal Tribune) monthly, "A Collection of Selected Works by Writers of Taiwan Province" edited by Mu Cheng-nan—
This 400-page volume of articles by some 160 writers of Taiwan birth is a rare accomplishment. Surprisingly, the editorial work and publication have been completed in only a year.
We want the public to know what has been achieved in literature during the 20 years since Taiwan rejoined the mother country. Twenty years ago, most Taiwanese were unable to read and write the Chinese language. Now our writings can be compared with works of those who were born to the language.
These articles tell the world of the progress we have made in education, culture, politics, social work, and the economy. Life under Japanese rule is recalled and contrasted with the land reform, industrialization, and overall prosperity that have followed.
This publication also demonstrates the spiritual unity of the writers of Taiwan and all other Chinese in building the Republic of China into a prosperous nation under the Three Principles of the People.
Men of letters do not control the government, but they can contribute importantly to the overthrow of a bad regime or to the reform of society. The power of scholars is indirect but potent. Let us not forget that Kang Yu-wei and Liang Chi-chao exercised a strong influence in the constitutional reforms of the Manchu dynasty and that the May 4th Movement of 1919 was a major factor in success of the Northward Expedition in the Chinese Revolution.
Writers of Taiwan are promoting national and provincial interests. We hope this publication will encourage new writers and bring new blood into the literary world of free China.
Mainland Conflict
Chinese Communist Affairs (bi-monthly), "War in Vietnam and Anti-Communist Revolution on the Chinese Mainland" by Hsiang Nai-kuang—
In the history of warfare, the conflict in Vietnam is unique. Vietnam is the essential front of the Communist world revolution. They are trying to use war to deplete U.S. military strength and undermine U.S. political power. Mao Tse-tung seeks a world-wide united front against the United States through prolonged stalemate in Vietnam.
Tactically, the Chinese Communists have adopted the "people's war" as their supreme principle for a lengthy struggle in Vietnam. The term implies a war by the people en masse: "Everybody is a warrior, every home a fortress, and every village a battlefield so as to engulf the enemy in a turbulent ocean."
In practice, the "people's war" means: "When you occupy the city, we take the countryside; when you dig in for defense, we hit and run in various directions. You rely on modern weapons; we rely on the awakened masses. So you fight in your way; we fight in our way."
The United States cannot pin down the enemy for a decisive battle and is bound to be annoyed. So the Chinese Communists will seize on the stalemate to fan up fresh waves of "anti-American" incidents.
The war in Vietnam is not an isolated problem. It is a struggle between the free nations and the Chinese Communist regime.
The known facts are: (1) mainland people abhor the Communist regime; (2) activities against the Communist tyranny occur every day; (3) Communists seek to maintain effective control at home and make aggressive thrusts abroad.
These facts may seem contradictory. For example, why do the people not overthrow a regime that most of them hate? The reason is simple. The time for the Chinese people to fight their tyrants with bare hands and sticks is over. In older times, the distance between the weapons of tyrant and people was scant. Resistance to tyrants could start fast and become an irresistible torrent.
This is not so on the Chinese mainland today. The Communists have modern weapons and control the wealth, the communications, and the transportation. It is not easy to start anti-Communist revolution.
However, the conflict between the Communist regime and the people is permanent and can only result in a people's victory. The Communists have become more and more isolated; the anti-Communist forces have grown stronger and stronger.
The anti-Communist revolution on the mainland will spread and grow if the following steps are taken:
1. Establishment of links between the anti-Communist forces on the mainland and underground fighters sent from Taiwan.
2. Collaboration between such anti-Communist forces and dissidents within the Communist Party and the armed forces.
3. Launching of a counteroffensive from Taiwan in coordination with the mainland revolution.
4. Close coordination between the anti-Communist struggle of the Republic of China and other anti-Communist undertakings.
Vietnam holds the key to the solution of problems in the Far East. And the war in Vietnam can be ended only by the counteroffensive of the Republic of China.
Religion for Family
Women's Friend (monthly), "Religion Is the Stabilizing Factor in the Family" by Chen Ya-yuan—
I believe we should treasure the inspiration of President Chiang Kai-shek in his writings on "National Fecundity, Social Welfare, Education, Health and Happiness". In these chapters, the President has stressed the importance of religion as a spiritual stabilizing force of man.
Only when the spirit is stabilized may we expect to lead a satisfactory family life.
I have the impression that nowadays girls of my age are more or less inclined to value only money and the good looks of their husbands or boy friends. As for me, I prefer religious faith.
I had the opportunity to observe a number of boys. But I found my husband because of his Christian faith. For two and a half years, we had attended the same church without speaking to each other. I did try to observe his nature and character. He was always good-natured and pleasant. It came to my mind that he would make an ideal husband.
One evening, an old friend of my father came to my house to ask for my hand in marriage to this man of religious faith. I gave my consent without a second thought, although some friends opposed the marriage because of his meager means and lack of family members in Taiwan.
After 11 years of marriage, we have five children. The children ask me why we never quarrel and keep on good terms with the neighbors.
I tell them it's simple. In the Bible, Jesus says: "You should love each other. The husband should protect the wife, and the wife should obey the husband." He also said "those who are in harmony will be blessed."
Our income is not high but we do not suffer from lack of luxuries. We don't smoke, drink, gamble or go to movies. We are leading a happy life together and help others. That is enough.