Publications Topics:

Books

ASP Conference Series

Monograph Publications

IAU Publications

Books of Note

Purchase through the AstroShop

Journals

Publications of the ASP (PASP)

Magazines

Mercury Magazine

Archive

Guidelines for Authors

Order Mercury Issues

Mercury Advertising Rates

Newletters

The Universe in the Classroom

ASP E-mail Newsletters

Special Features

Astronomy Beat

Contact Us

Mercury, May/June 1996 Table of Contents

by John R. Percy, University of Toronto

(c) 1996 Astronomical Society of the Pacific

"Chinese scientists must now struggle to read and publish in English," Caltech chemist Sunney Chan told Science last fall. "But in 50 years the scientific world will need to learn Chinese."

As the Chinese Astronomical Society approaches its 75th anniversary next year, it can look back on a decade of rapid growth -- following 60 years of war, revolution, and other upheaval. The 10 lost years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) wrecked Chinese intellectual life, and the effects linger in the demographics of Chinese astronomy. Now the country faces another decade of economic and political change and uncertainty.

New buildings are rising on almost every street corner. The frenzy of double-digit economic growth is visible even in astronomical facilities. Next to the headquarters of the Beijing Astronomical Observatory is a spin-off: a communications- antenna factory. The Beijing Planetarium sacrifices its precious exhibit hall for rental income. In the antechambers of the Beijing Ancient Observatory are shops producing and selling a variety of goods.

Science is having trouble recruiting and retaining young people, lured away by the higher salaries and superior housing available in business. Graduate students who can study abroad tend to do so, and many do not return. Those who stay lack international contacts and experience. Computer networking is rickety. In today�s economic tumult, no one knows whether the government will support basic science at previous levels -- a familiar story throughout the world.

Even so, I detected optimism among Chinese astronomers, teachers, and students during my three-week visit in May 1995 when I visited and lectured at research institutes, universities, schools, planetariums, and science centers.

Politics vs. Science

About 300 Chinese astronomers belong to the International Astronomical Union. Ye Shuhua, an astrometrist and one of the few women astronomers in China, served as an IAU vice- president for six years. Politics complicated Chinese participation in the IAU for many years because the union admitted Taiwan in 1959. To this day, relations between astronomers in Taiwan and on the mainland are affected more by political considerations than by scientific ones.

Chinese astronomers published over 9,000 papers between 1982 and 1992 -- a prodigious rate (though difficult to compare with statistics elsewhere) considering that the Chinese are restricted in their access to large telescopes in good sites, the Internet, books and journals, and international travel. The establishment of a national granting agency, the National Natural Science Foundation, in 1985 lowered these hurdles, but since proposals are written in Chinese, it is difficult to raise research standards through international peer review. For better or worse, English remains the lingua franca of science.

Chinese astronomy is strongest in solar studies, astrometry, celestial mechanics, and Earth-rotation studies. Basic academic research in China is carried out through two channels: the universities and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The academy operates the major observatories: Beijing Astronomical Observatory, with optical, infrared, radio, and solar facilities; Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing; Shanghai Observatory, which specializes in astrometry and geodesy; Shaanxi Observatory, where the time service is based; and Yunnan Observatory.

The largest telescope in the country is the 2.16-meter reflector at the Xinglong station of the Beijing Observatory. Shanghai Observatory operates a 1.56-meter astrometric telescope, the world�s largest. The academy plans a 4-meter Schmidt telescope, LAMOST (Large Area Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope), which would conduct a spectroscopic survey of the sky in more detail than ever before.

Beijing Normal University and Nanjing University have astronomy departments, and Beijing University and the University of Science and Technology of China have astrophysics groups. The major department is at Nanjing, where I spent several days. The department has several rooms of PCs and workstations for undergraduate and graduate students, who are skilled in using them. Email service is sporadic and Internet service, as we know it, nonexistent. Chinese astronomers have access to the Hubble, Infrared Astronomical Satellite, and International Ultraviolet Explorer databases, but they are located at different institutes.

These databases are especially useful for undergraduate research, an increasing emphasis at Nanjing. The campus has several small telescopes on campus used for instruction, although they could do good research if equipped with photometers and CCDs. The administration at Nanjing is progressive, emphasizing interdisciplinary work, professional and instructional development for faculty, and overseas linkages. Besides, the president is an astronomer.

A Piece of Antarctica

Middle school (grades 7 to 12) teaches the same topics by the same methods in a physical-geography course that is compulsory for science students. The situation is better in "key" middle schools (Americans would call them magnet schools), which are often affiliated with a university or research institute. A few key schools have rooftop observatories -- a prestigious symbol, which may explain why schools prefer to have an observatory rather than kits of hands-on materials for the classroom. At the key middle school in Beijing, I was amazed to find a 0.4-meter (16- inch) computer-controlled alt-azimuth telescope that had been designed for use at the South Pole, part of a China-U.S. project that never received funding.

Such telescopes are used by only a few dozen students, members of the school astronomy club, and even these hypermotivated students usually drop out as they approach grade 12 and the university entrance exams. School goes from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., but I saw seniors at school at 5 p.m., studying hard for their exams.

After school, students can visit "youth palaces" where they can take part in cultural activities such as music, dance, theater, and astronomy. Many of these centers have planetariums and observatories, as do science and technology activity centers.

At the university level, astronomy is taught primarily to physical-science students, seldom to non-science students, as in the United States. At Beijing University, however, I gave an evening talk to an overflowing crowd of enthusiastic, articulate members of an astronomy club with members from many departments. Nanjing University, notably, runs flexible student programs -- and, in general, has a student-centered philosophy.

As in many countries, graduate work can be done through either the universities or the Academy of Sciences, which together have trained about 300 astronomy master�s degrees and 60 doctorates in the last decade.

Although pseudoscientific beliefs such as numerology are widespread in China, public interest in science appears to be strong. The government funds national and provincial organizations for the popularization of astronomy. Beijing Planetarium is China�s largest. In fact, it is the largest planetarium I have ever seen. I sat through a school show with several hundred children, who were squealing with delight. The planetarium publishes popular magazines and books, trains staff for dozens of smaller planetariums across the country, and runs the Beijing Ancient Observatory -- one of the scientific treasures of the world.

Situated in the middle of the city, beside a busy intersection, this observatory contains nine instruments dating from as early as 1442. Most are in working order. The staff is building exact replicas of the instruments for world tour. Two replicas have already toured in a traveling exhibit developed by the Beijing Museum of Science and Technology.

Some 180 astronomy books were published from 1982 to 1992. Professional astronomer Bian Yulin has translated books by Isaac Asimov and written books of his own. Amateurs founded the Chinese Amateur Astronomer Association in 1991, but still do little observing. City skies are rather bright and polluted, and escaping the cities is difficult. During my visit, China officially adopted the five-day work week, so there should be more time for leisurely stargazing in the future.

JOHN R. PERCY is an astronomy professor at the University of Toronto in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. He is president of IAU Commission 46 and president-elect of the ASP. His email address is jpercy@erin.utoronto.ca.

Illustration captions

The Nanjing "youth palace." This Nanjing after-school center offers a planetarium and observatory. Photo by John R. Percy.