The Two Lives of Cheng Maolan: From the "French Silk Road to Astronomy" to the Meanders of Mao’s China (SpringerBriefs in Astronomy)

This book presents the exceptional biography of the 20 th century Chinese astronomer Cheng Maolan, who came to France in 1926 on a China-France cooperation program to do his PhD with the idea of returning to China after a few years. Instead, he lived two lives. He first stayed in France and studied astronomy in Lyon, the “Silk city”, where he suffered the hardships of the German occupation, but also witnessed the construction of the Haute-Provence Observatory. After the war, he started a promising career at Lyon Observatory. However, in 1957 he decided to live a second life, by returning to the motherland, which had in the meantime become the People's Republic of China. There, he suffered the hardships of the Cultural Revolution, but he managed to play a pivotal role in establishing the Beijing Observatory as its director. In particular, he prepared the ground for the Xinglong 2-m telescope, which saw its first light in 1989, ten years after his death. Cheng Maolan is now considered a "Chinese hero": an "Astronomy and Technology Museum" was built and named after him in 2018, in his native city of Boye, Hebei Province, China, featuring a tall, white statue in front of the building. Foreword 6 Acknowledgements 8 Contents 9 1 The French “Silk Road” to Astronomy (1926–1957) 11 1.1 Introduction: Cheng Maolan, the First Chinese IAU Vice-President? 11 1.2 Background: Chinese “Workers-Students” in France in the Early Twentieth Century 14 1.3 A French-Chinese University-Level Institute in Lyon 17 1.4 Cheng Maolan’s Mysterious Early Years in France 20 1.5 The Lyon “Silk Road” to the Stars 24 1.6 ...But the Road Was Hard 30 1.7 Wartime in Occupied France 36 1.8 A New Observatory Nested in Provence, the “Country of Cicadas” 42 1.9 After the Liberation: Recognition and Normal Life 49 1.10 A First Life in France: “The Most French of the Chinese” 54 2 Return to the Motherland (1957–1978) 58 2.1 Early Contacts 58 2.2 Selecting Sites for a New Observatory 65 2.3 Pushing the 2-m Telescope Project in the Times of the Cultural Revolution 71 2.4 Cheng Maolan’s Second Life: A Lasting Legacy for the Future 75 2.5 A Hero for “New China” 79 References 82 Appendix A The “Work-Study Movement” in France: Montargis and China 84 Appendix B Chinese Students in Astronomy at the Institut Franco-Chinois de Lyon (1921–1947) and Their Careers 90 Appendix C The First Years of the Xinglong Observatory and the 2.16-m Telescope 113 Name Index 121