Abstract
Trained at University of Liverpool in both theoretical and experimental physics, William Band accepted in 1929 an appointment at Christian Yenching University in Beijing, China, where he established his career through the 1930s, heading the physics department and nurturing dozens of distinguished Chinese researchers in its MSc program. Despite the Japanese occupation of Beijing in summer 1937, Band continued his work at Yenching—an American property and an oasis of freedom for Chinese students in North China. In the wake of Pearl Harbor, Band joined a breathtaking and successful escape from Yenching, just before the Japanese raid reached the campus. He sought refuge in Communist guerrilla bases in North China, where he taught calculus, college physics, and radio theory to radio technicians of guerrilla forces. After trekking one thousand miles through Japanese occupied areas, escorted by Communist guerrillas, Band arrived first in Yan’an, the Chinese Communist headquarters, where he met and conversed with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, and then in Chongqing, China’s wartime capital, where he served in the Sino-British Science Cooperation Office to help war-ridden Chinese scientists until his departure for Britain in December 1944. Band’s adventure provides a unique and useful lens to explore uncharted aspects of science in Republican China.
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06 September 2019
In the original publication of this article, the author noticed some minor errors.
Notes
During the first half of the twentieth century, the city Beijing was also referred to in the West as Peking and Peiping. Except for direct quotes from primary sources and institutions’ proper names, I refer to the city as Beijing throughout.
References
William Band, “Autobiography: 班威廉 William Band,” 1981, Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA, ch. 1.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 2; ch. 3, 3.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 4.
William Band, “An Examination of Professor Whitehead’s Theory of Relatvity” (Master’s thesis, University of Liverpool, 1927).
Alfred North Whitehead, The Principle of Relativity with Applications to Physical Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922).
William Band, “Dr. A.N. Whitehead’s Theory of Absolute Acceleration,” Philosophical Magazine 7, no. 43 (1929), 434–40; “A Comparison of Whitehead’s with Einstein’s Law of Gravitation,” Philosophical Magazine 7, no. 47 (1929), 1183–86.
James Rice, Recommendation Letter, August 14, 1934. Special Collections, Divinity Library, Yale University, The United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia Records, RG 11, 320-4877.
Gary Gibbons and Clifford M. Will, “On the Multiple Deaths of Whitehead’s Theory of Gravity,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 39, no. 1 (2008), 41–61. I wish to thank Roberto Lalli, Jonathan Bain, and Michel Janssen for sharing with me their insight about Whitehead’s theory of gravitation and relevant studies.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 5, 6–7.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 5, 7.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 6, 2; ch. 7, 1. For J. B. Tayler’s background, see Rev. L. H. Gaunt, ed., The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society, vol. 15, new series (London: London Missionary Society, 1906), 14; Tayler took a furlough between July 20, 1926, and September 10, 1927; these dates were handwritten in the following volume (under Entry 1220): London Missionary Society and James Sibree, eds, A Register of Missionaries, Deputations, etc., from 1796 to 1923, 4th ed. (London: The Society, 1923), deposited as a reference book in the Reading Room at London Missionary Society Archives at School of Oriental and African Studies Library in London. For information on Tayler’s career in China, see Yanjing yan jiu yuan 燕京研究院, ed. Yanjing da xue ren wu zhi 《燕京大学人物志》 [Who’s Who in Yenching University], vol. 1 (Beijing: Beijing da xue chu ban she, 2001), 255–56.
J. B. Tayler, letter to W. Band, Peking, March 14, 1929. Records of the Council for World Mission, Box 27, Folder 2073, London Missionary Society Archives at School of Oriental and African Studies Library, University of London in London.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 7, 1.
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Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 7, 1; Tayler to Band (ref. 12).
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Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 7, 2–3.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 7, 2–3.
William Band, letter to F. H. Hawkins, October 1, 1929, 2981, Box 26, Incoming Correspondence, North China, Records of the Council for World Mission, London Missionary Society Archives at School of Oriental and African Studies Library, University of London in London.
Danian Hu, “Bridging East and West through Physics: William Band at Yenching University,” in Science and Technology in Modern China, 1880s–1940s, ed. Jing Tsu and Benjamin Elman (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 252–54. Xie’s birth year has been revised according to his matriculation record at the University of Chicago.
One may track Band’s career promotions through the Yenching University Bulletins published between 1929 and 1941.
The data are drawn from my examination of available publications by Band and Yenching’s MSc theses in physics deposited in Peking University Library in Beijing. See also Hu, “Bridging East and West” (ref. 20), 260.
Hu, “Bridging East and West” (ref. 20), 256–57.
Hu, “Bridging East and West” (ref. 20), 257.
For the dates of these Chinese physicists and brief discussions of their accomplishments, see Dong Guangbi 董光璧, Zhong guo xian dai wu li xue shi 《中国现代物理学史》 [A History of Physics in Modern China] (Ji’nan: Shandong jiaoyu chubanshe, 2009), 63, 84, 150–51, 233, 131, 132, 113–14, 谢家麟 [Xie Jialin], accessed November 16, 2018, http://www.ihep.cas.cn/yjdw/yjyszj/201602/t20160226_4537502.html.
John Leighton Stuart, Fifty Years in China: The Memoirs of John Leighton Stuart, Missionary and Ambassador (New York: Random House, 1954), 126.
On the controversy over Stuart’s decision to keep Yenching in Beijing, see Zhang Weiying, Wang Baiqiang, and Qian Xinbo, eds., Yanjing da xue shi gao 《燕京大学史稿》[A Draft History of Yenching University, 1919–1952] (Beijing: Ren min Zhongguo chu ban she, 2000), 1298; Chen Yuan 陈远, Yanjing da xue 《燕京大学》 [Yenching University]: 1919–1952 (Hangzhou: Zhejiang renmin chubanshe, 2013), 152–54. Dwight W. Edwards, Yenching University (New York: United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, 1959), 346–47. Furen University and Sino-French University were two other universities that remained in Beijing after July 1937, but I would argue that only Yenching was the truly independent university in occupied Beijing.
Max Born, My Life: Recollections of a Nobel Laureate (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978), 290–91. The collaboration between Huang and Born on writing the book began in 1947. Huang Kun 黄昆, Huang Kun wen ji 《黄昆文集》 [Collected Papers of Huang Kun] (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2004), 628.
Hsiaoli Li Lindsay, interview with Danian Hu, Beijing, July 23, 2007. Michael Lindsay, The Unknown War: North China 1937–1945 (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2003), 78. The dates of Li Xiaoli are drawn from Susan V Lawrence, “Hsiao Li Lindsay Obituary,” The Guardian, June 1, 2010, accessed November 20, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/01/hsiao-li-lindsay-obituary.
Hsiao Li Lindsay, Bold Plum: With the Guerrillas in China’s war against Japan (Morrisville, NC: Lulu, 2007), 96–97; Claire Band and William Band, Two Years with the Chinese Communists (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948), 9–12, quote on 11.
Michael Lindsay, Chongguang Yang, and Ping Hao, Kang zhan zhong de hong se gen ju di 《抗战中的红色根据地—一个英国人不平凡经历的记述》 [The Red Bases during the Second Sino-Japanese War: An Account of an Englishman’s Extraordinary Experience], Tu wen jian zheng Ba lu jun kang zhan shi (Beijing: Jie fang jun wen yi chu ban she, 2005), 85.
Lindsay et al., The Red Bases (ref. 34). In figure 9, with guerrilla troops, we can only see the Lindsays and Band’s wife Claire, probably because it was taken by Band.
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 13.
Lindsay, Bold Plum (ref. 30), 100–101; Lindsay, Unknown War (ref. 29), 78–79.
William Band, interview by George E. Duvall and James L. Park, April 25, 1985, transcript, Archives 202 Box 1, WSU Centennial Oral History Project, Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA, 12; William Band, An Introduction to Quantum Statistics (Princeton: Van Nostrand, 1955).
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 24–82.
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 83–96; Lin Shuang 林爽, “忆晋察冀军区无线电研究组 [A Recollection of the Radio Study Group in Jin-Cha-Ji Military District],” 西安电子科技大学档案馆 [The Archives of Xidian University], accessed November 23, 2018, http://dag.xidian.edu.cn/info/1040/1794_3.htm.
Feng Decai 丰德才, “王士光 [Wang Shiguang] (1915–2003),” in 《中国科学技术专家传略·工程技术编·电子信息科学技术卷 2》 [Short Biographies of Chinese Specialists in Science and Technology, Engineering & Technology Section, Electronic Information Science & Technology, vol. 2], ed. 中国科学技术协会 [The China Association for Science and Technology] (Beijing: Zhongguo kexue jishu chubanshe, 2006).
Tan Bangzhi 谭邦治, “林爽 [Lin Shuang] (1917–2001),” in 《中国科学技术专家传略·工程技术编·航天卷 2》 [Short Biographies of Chinese Specialists in Science and Technology, Engineering & Technology Section, Electronic Information Science & Technology, vol. 2], ed. 中国科学技术协会 [The China Association for Science and Technology] (Beijing: Yu hang chubanshe, 2002).
Qiu Ruo-hong 邱若宏, “晋察冀边区自然科学界协会述略 [A Brief History of the Association of Scientific Societies in Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Regions],” Journal of Heibei Normal University, Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition 36, no. 1 (2013): 61.
Wu Heng 武衡, “Jin cha ji ke xue jie yan jiu gai jin sheng chan 晋察冀科学界研究改进生产 [Jin-Cha-Ji Association of Scientific Societies Studies to Improve Productions],” in Kang ri zhan zheng shi qi jie fang qu ke xue ji shu fa zhan shi zi liao 《抗日战争时期解放区科学技术发展史资料》, vol. 3 (Beijing: Zhongguo xue shu chu ban she, 1984), 207.
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 182–84, 235.
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 238–64.
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 264–65.
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 251–52.
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 266–68.
Claire Band and William Band, Dragon Fangs: Two Years with Chinese Guerrillas (London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1947).
克兰尔 Claire Band and 班威廉 William Band, 《新西行漫记》 [Two Years with the Chinese Communists], trans. 斐然, 吴楚, and 何文介 (Beijing: Xin hua chu ban she, 1988).
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 268–303.
For the date of their arrival in Chongqing, Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 15, 1.
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 304. For details about Needham’s life, see Simon Winchester, The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom (New York: Harper, 2008).
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 15, 2.
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 264.
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 307.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 15, 2.
Band and Band, Two Years (ref. 30), 308.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 15, 2.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 15, 2–3. Liu Zhongquan 刘中权, “抗战中的军令部第二厅 [The Second Bureau of the GMD Headquarters of the General Staff during the War of Resistance against Japanese Invasion],” 《红岩春秋》, no. 5 (1995).
The certificate (证明书) was written in Chinese: “查 班威廉教授 (Professor William Band) 系中英科学合作馆重要职员,彼授有一切行政上之权柄。此证。馆长 李约瑟,一九四四年七月十九日.”
Joseph Needham and Dorothy Needham, eds., Science Outpost: Papers of Sino-British Science Co-operation Office (British Council Scientific Office in China), 1942–1946 (London: The Pilot Press, Ltd., 1948), 14.
Xi Zezong 席泽宗, Ke xue shi shi lun 《科学史十论》 [Ten Essays on the History of Science], Ming jia zhuan ti jing jiang (Shanghai: Fu dan da xue chu ban she, 2003), 202.
Xi, Ten Essays (ref. 61), 207.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 15, 7.
Wu Yuexing 武月星, Zhongguo kang ri zhan zheng shi di tu ji 《中国抗日战争史地图集》 [The Historical Atlas of China’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression], 1931–1945, in Zhongguo kang ri zhan zheng shi cong shu (Beijing: Zhongguo di tu chu ban she, 1995), 261–67, and Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 15, 7.
Dorothy Needham, Travel Diaries: Item 1 (GCPP Needham 5/1/1), Personal Papers of Dorothy Needham, Girton College Archive, University of Cambridge (1944), entries on December 1 & 4; Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 15, 7.
Wu, Historical Atlas (ref. 64), 267; Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 15, 7; Dorothy Needham, Travel Diaries (ref. 65), entry dated December 13, 1944.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 15, 7.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 16, 3–4.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 16, 3–4; ch. 17, 1, 3, 6. The information about Band and Harold Dodgen is drawn from this author’s interview with Dodgen in Pullman, WA, on October 28, 2012. For more information about Dodgen, see “Obituary: Harold W. Dodgen, 96, of Pullman,” Moscow-Pullman Daily News, December 2, 2017, accessed November 28, 2018, https://dnews.com/obituaries/obituary-harold-w-dodgen-of-pullman/article_11d737e0-0903-5021-94b9-1f4a09623890.html.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 20, 1; ch. 21, 1.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 23, 7.
Band, “Autobiography” (ref. 1), ch. 25, 2.
This author’s telephone interviews and electronic correspondence with Dr. Yi Sun over the past decade.
Acknowledgements
It is a great pleasure for me to acknowledge various generous support and kind assistance I have received since I began to work on this project in 2006. First, I am indebted to Professor Dong Guangbi 董光璧 for recommending William Band to me as a potential research subject. I wish to thank Band’s former colleagues and friends, especially Professor Harold W. Dodgen and Mrs. Dodgen, Dr. Yi Sun 孙绮, Professors Jim Park, J. Thomas Dickinson, Edward E. Donaldson, and Stephen C. Langford, for spending their valuable time to share with me their knowledge and memories of late William Band. I wish to thank Li Xiaoli 李效黎 (Mrs. Lindsay) and her son Jim Lindsay for accepting my interview at her home in Beijing; I also thank her granddaughter Susan Lawrence very much for sending me many extremely valuable historical materials and for arranging the interview. I am profoundly grateful to the following archives and archivists whose generous support made this study possible: Cheryl Gunselman and her colleagues at Manuscripts, Archives & Special Collections of Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, WA; Joan Duffy and her colleagues at Yale Divinity School Library (special collections); archival records of United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia; Lee R. Hiltzik and his colleagues at Rockefeller Archive Center; Peking University Archives; and University of Liverpool Archives. I am much obliged to David Band, William Band’s nephew, and his wife Karin Band, for accepting my interviews at their home in the suburb of London and for making Band’s photo collections available to me. I am deeply grateful to John P. C. Moffett at Needham Research Institute and to Peter Rowland at University of Liverpool for their kind and generous help. I am extremely fortunate to have many friends and colleagues who have been the unfailing sources of help and I wish to thank especially Alan J. Rocke, Liu Xiwen 刘细文, Sun Lie 孙烈, Ji Qingyang 季庆阳, Tang Mingwei 唐明卫, Clayton A. Gearhart, Roberto Lalli, Eric Weitz, Craig Daigle, and Anne Kornhauser. As always, I deeply appreciate the generous support and careful editorial work of Joseph D. Martin, Richard Staley, and Robert P. Crease, the editors of the Physics in Perspective. It is my honor and pleasure to acknowledge indispensable financial supports for this project from PSC-CUNY, Mellon Fellowship at NRI, MPIWG-CNU partner group, as well as the PRC Outline History of Science and Technology Project.
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Danian Hu is a Professor in the Department of History of The City College of The City University of New York.
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Hu, D. From Liverpool to Beijing and Chongqing: William Band’s Adventure in Wartime China. Phys. Perspect. 21, 222–251 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-019-00241-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-019-00241-0
Keywords:
- William Band
- University of Liverpool
- Yenching University
- modern physics in Republican China
- the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression
- Sino-British Science Co-operation Office (SBSCO)
- Chinese Communists and wartime Western visitors
- Christian mission colleges in China