He also advocated that younge scientists in China should be courageous to state a proposition and should have the discipline to prove it.
His scientific clear-thinking inspired ma-ny students of his to study science. One of his students, Dr. Ch一 ien-Shiung Wu(吳健雄 ) is now a world re-nowned Professor of Nuclear Physics at Columbia University. When our Institute gave the 1958 CrE Award to Professor Wu on hor accompli-shments in nuclear physics, Dr. Hu, as an honored guest, re-marked that without" Professor v\袍's exp-eriments the non~pa rity theory discovered by Dr. C. D. Lee (李 政道) and Dr. C. N.
Yang (楊振寧) (Nobel Prize Laurett郎， 1957) would remain
a hypothesis.
As he was named the Director of Academia Scinica df Free China in 1958, he decided to return to Taiwan to take the post, because he acknowledged that science is the determining factor of the Free World to win over Communism, and in that post he could promonte science in Free China. He worked energetically in spite of ill
health until his death.
.，.;;.. 12 一
Fig. 1
Dr. Hu Shih (left) and author on board U.S.S. President Cleveland, 孔1arch 19生9.
~O~YOFDR ， H立 SHIH (胡適)
by
'r. c.
T8aoTo the sorrow of all free-thinking people, Dr. Hu Shih passed away in Taiwan, February 24th, just after our last Newsletter was released. There were multifold roles played by this remarkable man in his life pursuits -- 1hat of a scholar, philospher, teacher, scientist and statesman. From my knowledge and acquaintance of him, I would describe him as a revered teacher, scientist, and above aU a very human person.
The greatness of Dr. Hu Shih as a scholar lay. in his independent thinking,broadmindedness,farsightedn.ess,and keen appreciation of Western civilization. Ther，~ was no contemporary Chinese, who with thorough attainment of
Chinese、 cultur.e， literature ahd philosophy, UI.derstood Western civilization so well as Dr. Hu. He dared to l;peak out
without 量'eserve that the Western civilization!s useful and important to c01pplement the old Chinese culture,and to lead youth to correct thinking and action. The introduction by Dr. Hu -- the Chinese spoken language into China's daily writing--is just one of the manif aspects ofDr. Hu's courage to re-evaluate the old practice in China and to introduce new tools and new methods for the good of China. He thought, he acted, by trying to write in spoken language (白話)， and he succeeded in an unprecedented mass movement!
Dr. Hu, as a scientist, had an inquisitive attitude, a fact-findingmind, and he pursued a systemati~ treatment of any problem rather than scientific invention or discqvery. Ever since he began his career as aprofessor of philosophy at Peking University, he promoted scientific methods of tackling any problem. He inaugurated a motto in his teachings that every scientific success is based on trials (萬事成功在嘗試〉一trialsto think and trials to act.
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There remains one ffiMe asp(~ct to mention, and this is Hu Shih the man. My first meeting with Dr. Hu was in England in 1927, when he was on a lecture tour and I,
a recent college graduate, was an apprentice engineer at Metropolitan-Vickers Elec. Mfg.Co. Although we exchan-ged correspondence, we did not see each other again until we sailed from Shanghai on board the same ship, the President Clevland, to the U
.s.
During the voyage I had many occasions to discuss various problems with him. His modesty, humility and unassuming attitude formed the real basis of his personality. The photo shown in Fig. 1 was taken just before our arrival at San Francisco. He wasa great enthusiast for engineering. His son, Tsu-Won(胡祖 望) is a mechanical engineer, now working in Washington,D.C. 1 司 31211 弓 jf31313433
Along with his wife, Nee Ton-Hsiu Kiang(江冬秀女士)， he lived in 1950 in an apartment on E. 81st Street, N.Y. City. As Mrs. Hu was a new comer to N.Y. and not accustomed to the American household, Dr. Hu would naturally take care of some chores. As I called on them, Dr. Hu told me that he was temporarily
“
No.1 baby sitter." He was human and always had a real sense of humor. He made anyone who came in contact with him feel pleasant and interesting.In conclusion, let me quote Dr. Hu's Socratic dialogue which he gave to one of his friends: “To make friends in order to enlarge one's own sphere; to instruct others in order to make one's learning not extinguish". Hu Shih's spirit will never be extinguished!
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