Check Out The Most Wanted Man In China: My Journey From Scientist To Enemy Of The State Authored By Fang Lizhi Disseminated As Digital Edition

personal history. Part political memoir. Very good read but a little meandering, Probably fascinating for anyone interested in China or Chinese politics, I was a little startled to realize this only covers Fang Lizhi's life in China, Perry Link writes an afterword about the man's life in the US, What an amazing man. Such a tradgedy that what happened at Tiananmen Square has been so successfully extinguished from official Chinese memory, being a man who hate science I really have nothing to say about it, but the way things happened to him, it was crazy, who would thought bring a man into his own country only to hate him so much and try to ban him.
The only thing that reminds me of him is, . me. I almost have the same life as him except for the science part, Good Job Fang and RIP, A fascinating memoir of a Chinese scientist, whose life vividly displays the ups and downs of life under in Communist China, Growing up during World War II and coming of age as Mao Zedong rose to power, Fang Lizhi quickly found his passion for science at odds with Marxist dogma.
Things didn't come to a head until the lates, however, when Deng Xiaoping viewed him as a traitor and the political tension surrounding the Tiananmen Square protests propeled Fang Lizhi to seek asylum in the US embassy.
Wellwritten and at times even humorous, this memoir is highly recommended to anyone interested in Chinese history of the last century, Remarkable firsthand account of life in China under Communism, Fang Lizhi was an accomplished seemingly quite brilliant scientist as well as a courageous, outspoken dissident in China, In this autobiography, he also shows himself to be an eloquent, engaging writer, No doubt some of the credit goes to the translator, Perry Link, but certainly the pacing, storytelling, themes and frequent humor all originate entirely from the author.
Fang's overarching point is that the work of a true scientist is for the most part incompatible with living in an authoritarian regime, A scientist must be an eternal skeptic, only accepting hypotheses that have been validated by facts, But unelected governments tend to demand blind loyalty and punish those who raise questions, That was certainly true in Fang's case, as he was ultimately forced to leave his home country for the U, S.

This book is likely best for someone who already has some familiarity with China and its history, It is not heavily footnoted and some references are not widely known, For anyone with an interest in contemporary China, however, I would highly recommend it, Interesting to see the political workings of the Chinese communist party and how they acted/reacted to Fang Li Zhi from both when Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping governed the state.


Fang li zhis often controversial ideas contributed significantly to both science and political events like the Tiananmen square protests, Enormously entertaining account of a brilliant, accidentally famous dissident who was lucky enough to have a great sense of humor, His experiences during the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap forward are particularly illuminating, and his mindset brings to mind Czech dissidents of thes ands who couldn't bring themselves to be terrified by a regime that employed so many idiots.
I really enjoyed reading this book, I want to thank LibraryThing and the publisher, Henry Holt, for sending me this book in return for an honest review, Fang Lizhi was a physicist whose clashes with the Chinese government helped inspire the Tiananmen Square protests, He wrote this autobiography while living at the US embassy in Beijing, The Chinese authorities had issued a warrant for his arrest, He was theremonths with his wife, while the US and Chinese governments negotiated an agreement to allow him to leave China,

Besides being a brilliant scientist, He writes very well, easily understood by a lay person, He begins his story as a child and carries through to his exile in the US, He has an engaging sense of humor,
P.: "even after death a a suicide victim could be targeted for denunciation"
Quoting Deng Xiaoping, p,: "people are taking advantage of our constitution!" referring to Tiananmen protests Fang's comment"Here Deng established in a single blow that one characteristic of 'Chinese democracy' is that citizens lack the right to take their constitution litarally.
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Fang was sent for reeducation/punishment several timesa farm, a coal mine and digging a railroad tunnel by hand, To treat such a brilliant scientist so poorly speaks ill of any government, But I should point out that the US government treated some of its own scientists in a simlar manner during the McCarthyism scare, Also, the Roman Catholic church prohibited people who committed suicide burial in "consecrated ground" until thes,
I give itout ofstars


Dr, Fang and His Holiness, Dalai Lama XIV, New York,

Fang LiZhi's memoir traces his emotional and philosophical journey, As a child, he revered Mao Tze Tung and believed in the Communist movement, but as he became involved in science, more specifically the realm of physics where facts ruled, he found conflicts in Mao's policies.
As a result of a letter coauthored by himself, a friend and his girlfriend, they were branded reactionaries, removed from their posts in their respective universities and sent to rural areas to perform hard labor.


Fang's honest and at times humorous reflections provide an insight into the inconsistencies and at times cruel policies under Mao's rule, how he adapted to survive while retaining his integrity and what he did to strive towards change.
The Man Most Wanted in China by Fang Linzhi is a very informative and enjoyable memoir, I had remembered hearing about him on TV during the Tiananmen Square Massacre back in, But I didn't know much about him, There is a foreword by the translator, Perry Link that sums up Fangs beliefs and his real connection to the massacre, Instead of actually inciting them, Fang had came to a conclusion about communism and science, He could understand science and enjoy the freedom to doubt, to ask, to respect other peoples questions but he could not accept dogma of any kind, He was not a leader of a revolution, he was fighter for truth,

He starts his story with his ancestors and explains some Chinese culture along with it, His sense of humor and the way that he told his life story made me feel very comfortable, It was like he was sitting in a chair beside me and chatting, His personality shown through his writing,

His father stayed away from political discussion but his mother was a rebel, She could

speak four dialects and played the accordion, She may be his inspiration for him to seek the truth,

He was not just an astrophysicist, He was recruited by Mao Zedong to work on building the atomic bomb, At the age of twelve he became a member of a secret group in high school, He did not know much about it except that he would not have to leave his family, In actuality, he had joined the Communist revolution, His life was a series of being in favor and out of favor with the government, Inhe was sent to the countryside, He learned pig farming, mining and all sorts of different jobs of country people and had great respect for them and enjoyed being with them, Back and forth, his work life and even social life determined by the government, He and his future wife had wanted to get married but he had to leave for his "reforming", So they had to “freeze” their relationship until later,

He loved talking to his students and in part got him into trouble and forced him and his wife to leave his beloved homeland,

Fang is a great story teller and knows just the right amount of detail to make you keep reading, I really enjoyed the parts about the different provinces of China that he lived in, When he was out of favor, he published under a different name, That struck me with irony, It made me think of the screenwriters of Hollywood publishing under a pseudonym because they had been accused of being Communists!

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in science and/or political systems.


I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book as a win from LibraryThing from the publishers in exchange for a fair book review, My thoughts and feelings in this review are totally my own,

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