Hangzhou (1911-1914)
That lake is the West Lake. That city is Hangzhou, an ancient and beautiful city. Since ancient times, there has been a saying that there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below. /kloc-in the 20th century, Qian Liu, king of wuyue, dredged the West Lake, and Qian Xuesen was his descendant. Although Qian Xuesen spent only a short time in Hangzhou as a child, his family legend endowed him with natural pride. When he was growing up, he was constantly reminded that the greatest city in China was intertwined with the stories of his ancestors, and his body was full of royal blood.
Beijing (19 14- 1929)
Having lived in Beijing for 15 years, Qian Xuesen absorbed the culture accumulated here for thousands of years, and witnessed the turbulent transformation of modernization in ancient China. I was deeply impressed by the magnificent palace walls and dazzling treasures in Beijing, which inevitably branded him as proud of Beijing. This pride and his self-confidence become one and become a part of his lifelong personality.
1. In Beijing No.2 Experimental Primary School, which specializes in recruiting gifted children, Qian Xuesen is a model student. He always surpasses his classmates in his studies, and deliberately skipped a grade under the arrangement of the teacher. The students recalled that Qian Xuesen's plane fuselage was strictly symmetrical, and the crease was light and flat, so that it could be "stable and far" when flying out. It can be seen that although Qian Xuesen is very young, he is used to doing things seriously and achieving his goals in a scientific way.
In Qian Xuesen's boyhood, it was his father who had the greatest influence on him. He never indoctrinated him. Instead, it stimulated his curiosity and encouraged him to pursue hobbies. Seventy years later, Qian Xuesen wrote in a newspaper: My father was my first teacher, and he opened a new world of art, music and literature for me.
Three years of junior high school gave Qian Xuesen the opportunity to explore different life trajectories. He is good at drawing animals, running water and flowers. His biology homework is very vivid, and he was still retained by the school after many years. He has an unusually keen sense of music; He plays the violin very well; He was elected as the class representative to take part in the debate. Qian Xuesen, a gifted student, can have more than ten different life choices when he graduates. However, his middle school years coincided with the most difficult years of the Republic of China, and he finally decided to show his talents in the field of science.
From 4.65438 to 0929, Qian Xuesen was admitted to department of mechanical engineering, the best engineering college in China, with the third place. After careful consideration, Qian Xuesen decided to major in railway engineering. At that time, the railway was the lifeline of the country. After the Kuomintang seized power, it began to work to unify the railway. With the continuous construction of railways, the demand for railway engineers is increasing year by year, which is an excellent opportunity for an ambitious young student to be down-to-earth and devote himself to important basic industries.
? 1in the autumn of 929, Qian Xuesen took off his middle school uniform and put on his student robe. With the dream of becoming a railway engineer, he went straight to Shanghai Jiaotong University. He bid farewell to Beijing.
Shanghai (1929- 1934)
1, in Shanghai Jiaotong University, Qian Xuesen's score is always the first. In class, almost all other students are superstitious about taking notes, for fear of missing a word, while he sits in the last row, immersed in writing academic papers. However, Qian Xuesen is very attentive to Professor Chen Quartz's class. Chen Quartz graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, taught English, and wrote down line after line of mathematical formulas in beautiful fine print on the blackboard. Qian Xuesen admired Chen Quartz's meticulous teaching style and efficient use of the blackboard, so that these two characteristics became his own unique teaching style in the future.
2.1930-1931Qian Xuesen stayed at home for a year. From 65438 to 0932, the situation in China became more violent and turbulent. The wind started at the end of Qingping, and the beating of a group of Japanese monks finally triggered the "December 28th Incident" in Shanghai. In the early morning of June+10/October 29th, 5438, the Japanese navy bombed Zhabei. After the war, Shanghai was full of ruins. In the face of modern science and technology, China's military strength is simply vulnerable. The plane has become a scary new weapon, and the vast sky has become a new battlefield for world hegemony.
The impact of this bombing on Qian Xuesen should not be underestimated. All this shows him that science and technology are not only vital to industrial development, but also closely related to national security.
If Qian Xuesen has devoted himself to becoming an excellent railway engineer in the past four years, he will have other plans-besides railway engineering, he will also be in China. Aviation is the future. He can go to England, under the leading position of aerodynamic theory of Cambridge University, or to the United States, where the Wright brothers have opened the curtain of modern aerospace.
Boxer indemnity students (1934- 1935)
1, boxer indemnity: 1900 In the year of Gengzi, the Boxer Rebellion in the northern region reached its climax, and the Qing Empire went to war with international powers. Eight-Nation Alliance occupied the Forbidden City. 190 1 year, China and 1 1 country signed the "Xin Chou Treaty" which humiliated the country. According to the treaty, the Qing government paid 450 million taels of silver, twice the annual income of the country at that time. This huge indemnity was paid off in 39 years, and the total principal and interest was about 982 million US dollars. The compensation+interest allocated by the United States is about $46 million. Roosevelt, an American, decided to take out some reparations and set up a scholarship for China students to study in the United States. In this way, we can train a group of influential future leaders who are educated in the United States, so as to control the future leaders of China intellectually and spiritually.
2. For more than 20 years, boxer indemnity Scholarship has been the highest scholarship in China. A large number of China's best students have been sent to the west for scientific and technological training, so that they can compete with her biggest enemy, the Japanese.
3.1In August, 934, Qian Xuesen left for Nanjing to take the boxer indemnity Scholarship Selection Examination and competed with 80 young people who were as eager to stand out as he was for 20 places. The list of 10 was published, and he was successfully selected, and he was also the only student studying aviation engineering.
Each scholarship winner will be assigned a domestic tutor to decide which school to go to, which expert to study with and which field to specialize in. Moreover, before going to the United States, you should travel in China for one year to understand the country's demand for its professional fields.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1935- 1936)
1, Qian Xuesen's time at MIT was short and unhappy. On the one hand, MIT of 1935 does not pay enough attention to aviation engineering, on the other hand, Qian Xuesen's personality is incompatible with MIT.
Going home means that all previous efforts have been wasted. After much deliberation, there is only one way to find another institution-California Institute of Technology. At that time, Von Carmen, who was in charge of aviation projects at California Institute of Technology, was famous for insisting on German theoretical thinking, which was very suitable for Qian Xuesen.
California Institute of Technology (1936)
1. von Carmen, an academic giant in the field of aviation institute, is a legend of California Institute of Technology. His thinking is so sharp that he can solve complex math problems in a flash, while other professors have been fighting for it for weeks.
When we met for the first time, Qian Xuesen left a deep impression on Von Carmen. Von Carmen wrote in his memoirs: This short, serious young man was extremely precise in answering my questions, and his keen and profound thinking left a deep impression on me.
The cooperation between Qian Xuesen and von Carmen is a perfect match. Von Carmen has a gifted physical insight, which can visualize aerodynamic problems and directly find the key to the problem, while Qian Xuesen is famous for his perseverance and talent in applied mathematics. He is responsible for handling all the details of the document.
For Qian Xuesen, this is the most important student career in his life and the starting point of his brilliant career.