The Most Wanted Man In China

The Most Wanted Man in China: My Journey from Scientist to Enemy of the State is the autobiography of the Chinese astrophysicist and activist Fang Lizhi. Fang narrates his experiences from youth through his 1989 request for asylum at the U.S. embassy in Beijing.

The Most Wanted Man In China
AuthorFang Lizhi
Original title自傳
TranslatorPerry Link
LanguageTraditional Chinese
GenreAutobiography, Biography, Non-fiction
Publisher天下文化 (World Culture, Taiwan), Henry Holt and Co. (English translation)
Publication date
July 2013
Publication placeChina
Published in English
February 2016
Media typePrint
Pages704
ISBN978-986-320-187-8 (Traditional Chinese)
978-1627794992 (English)
The Most Wanted Man in China: My Journey from Scientist to Enemy of the State
Traditional Chinese自傳
Transcriptions

In the introduction,[1] dated October 27, 1989, Fang provides a brief overview of his present circumstances in the embassy. He then begins the book with a review of his family origins, before delving into the politics, science and personal relationships of his life as a Communist Party member and physicist through the Anti-Rightist Campaign, Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.

Fang notes the animosity of the Communist Party to relativity and cosmology[2] as well as parallels between his situation and that of Galileo.[3]

Reception

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Richard Bernstein said in the New York Times that the book is "remarkably cool, precise and in places even good-humored".[4]

In The New York Review of Books, Freeman Dyson wrote that Fang has "..a two sided heritage...a role model for a group of rebellious spirits...[and] the rebirth of Chinese science as a full partner in the emerging world community of inquiring minds". [5]

Publication details

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References

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  1. ^ Fang Lizhi. The Most Wanted Man in China. p. 1.
  2. ^ Fang Lizhi. "Turn Toward Astrophysics". The Most Wanted Man in China.
  3. ^ Fang Lizhi. "Thirteen Months". The Most Wanted Man in China.
  4. ^ Bernstein, Richard (February 19, 2016). "'The Most Wanted Man in China' and 'The Cowshed'". New York Times.
  5. ^ Dyson, Freeman (May 26, 2016). "The Heritage of a Great Man". New York Review of Books.

See also

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  • 方励之 (Chinese Wikipedia biography page of Fang Lizhi)