From the outside, China has long been seen as an enigma by the West. Powerful, but dangerous. Clearly opposed to most foreign ways of thinking, but successful in some important ways by its own methods. A dictatorship, the last remaining Communist power, and supposedly poised for tremendous growth as it begins to open its markets once again.
Fang Lizhi gives us a valuable inside view of China in this collection of essays and speeches. Fang is a dissident, but perhaps in the style noted by Vaclav Havel: people "do not usually discover they are 'dissidents' until long after they actually become one."
In fact, Fang is a scientist, a theoretical physicist, and he finds that he cannot help but speak the truth as he sees it. This may not sound so profound to a Westerner, but in China, Marxism decrees even what sort of scientific theories are correct. Fang's "dissidence" began with the publication of a scientific paper supporting the Big Bang theory of the formation of the Universe, to which the Communist leaders objected because the "standard model" of cosmology is supposedly opposed to Marxist thought.
Fang began to speak openly about the need for truth in science, and the requirement that China embrace democracy in order to foster the environment conducive to seeking scientific truth. He was expelled from the Communist Party twice, sent to remote locations to do manual labor, rejected from university positions, and denied permission to go abroad on various occasions. At the peak of China's political firestorms in the late 1980's, Fang (and his wife, also a physicist) sought refuge in the American Embassy in Beijing. Later he went to Cambridge, essentially in exile, and there he remains until today. "Bringing Down the Great Wall" was compiled by his colleagues, and richly reveals Fang's thoughts on China and its uncertain future. I give this book a solid "+."
Fang is a complex person. He speaks very openly, even at risk to himself (although he is aware that as a famous physicist, he is unlikely simply to "disappear," as would easily happen with an average worker). He rejects most major tenets of Communist thought, including Deng's "Four Principles" and the concept of "embracing Western things while retaining the Chinese essence". And yet, he is not anti-China. He honestly wants reform, not revolution. Even when he goes abroad to do science in Italy, the UK, and America, he retains his Chinese viewpoint. He wants to embrace the West without regard for "preserving China" precisely because he knows China can never lose its unique perspective, and believes it will only benefit from foreign learning.
Also, he repeatedly rejected opportunities to serve in a prominent leadership position. He was interested in doing science, not inciting rebellion for the heck of it. If shaking things up could mean more freedom for his research, he was for it. But he didn't fashion himself to be a political martyr or guerilla fighter.
Fang's ideas are well worth reading for Westerners. This book does not just make you feel warm and fuzzy for living in a free country. It reminds citizens of democratic countries what the virtues of this system are-- or ought to be. Fang's writings should be mandatory reading for American right-wing Republicans, whose ideology opposes most of Fang's democratic ideas. Communists may be technically left-wing, but as they say, the extremes blend into one. I was hard-pressed to distinguish many of Bush's newly implemented policies from those of Deng Xiaoping's administration.
It is intriguing that Fang's passions for democracy are inspired by his love of science. His thoughts kept resonating with earlier ideas I had read by Carl Sagan, who asserted that the conditions for democracy largely overlap with the conditions for producing accurate, honest science. (Sagan was well acquainted with Soviet scientists during the Cold War; I found myself wondering if some of these same thoughts had been born from conversing with members of the other large Communist regime of the world).
On the subject of science and politics, I continue to be intrigued by the connections between physics and policy. Although dissidents come from all walks of life, physicists are overrepresented in their numbers. Think of Sakarov in the Soviet Union. Or even Einstein's political influence, though he was not a "dissident." In contrast, biologists, chemists, and engineers are much lower key. I wonder why.
Fang makes ample use of the analogies that physics can provide to political philosophy. Reacting against the rigid Marxist doctrine, he invokes Einstein's principle of relativity, explaining that there can be no priviledged frame of reference. He likens social ferment to chemical reactions and revolution to Newton's Third Law.
These conceptual tricks are hardly original; physicists (and scientists in general) have long applied their vocabulary to the language of policy. Usually to a bad end-- "scientific" politics has resulted in such questionable philosophies as social darwinism. I have written off science as a reliable way to generate social principles. And yet, Fang pulls it off pretty well. He is not trying to devise a set of equations by which society can be run; he mostly uses physics as a common-sense rebuttal to the illogic of Marxism. In that context, I found that I didn't object to his analogy between relativity and social tolerance.
Fang's works provide a fascinating outside perspective on democracy, religion, and the role of the government in society. His views originate from a totally different experience, and yet they touch on common themes that we have been familiar with since childhood. Or at least, we have been familiar with our version of them. You will come away with a better understanding of China, but also of yourself and your country.
I hope Fang Lizhi lives to see China move closer toward the vision he describes for his country.
Copyright © Kim Allen 2002
