Abstract
Despite the fact that he had only studied for four years in a primary school, Shen Hong became one of the most important technical leaders in the development of China’s modern machinery industry. From 1950s, as one of the major responsible persons, Shen Hong participated in or presided over a number of major projects in the Chinese machinery industry, including the introduction of Soviet equipment, the movement of agricultural mechanization, the design of train wheels, the Shanghai 120 MN Hydraulic Forging Press, the Nine Great Installations (“NGI”) and the hydraulic and power equipment of the Gezhouba Dam and the Three Gorges Dam. Besides, he also worked as the editor-in-chief of such works as Encyclopedia of China: Mechanical Engineering Volume, Mechanical Engineering Handbook and Electrical Engineering Handbook. This article briefly reviews his life, highlights that the key reasons why his outstanding contributions were recognized by the Chinese industrial, political and academic circles were that he had the remarkable capacity of resolving actual engineering problems, could accurately understand the central demands of the development of the Chinese machinery industry, and managed to stick to his role of a technical specialist. Shen Hong emphasized that China should address central issues and manufacture key equipment independently and study the advanced technologies and experience from Western countries. His experience and opinions reflect the development history and the characteristics of China’s modern machinery industry.
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Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the “Gathering intelligence: Review and Prospect of Science and Technology in China” of the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences (IHNS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. Y821101003). I gratefully acknowledge the support of Professor Baichun Zhang, which help me to investigate this issue and discuss with me many times. I am also obliged to Professor Danian Hu for his generous encouragement and enlightening suggestions.
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Sun, L. (2019). Shen Hong: A Legendary Engineer of China’s Modern Machinery Industry. In: Zhang, B., Ceccarelli, M. (eds) Explorations in the History and Heritage of Machines and Mechanisms. History of Mechanism and Machine Science, vol 37. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03538-9_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03538-9_4
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