Marriage and Family Life

1 Jiang Ying’s Recital

Jiang Ying, born in an elite family in China, was elegant and intellectual. She had received a good family education since childhood. Influenced by her father, Jiang Baili, a military strategist for the Nationalist government of China, and her Japanese mother, Jiang Zuomei, Jiang Ying developed a personality that was both independent and gentle. She received modern education in Shanghai during her teenage years and developed a strong interest in music. Later on, she studied in Europe, specializing in singing, and became famous for her recitals in Shanghai and Hangzhou upon her return at the end of 1946. With a single performance, Jiang Ying had burst upon the Chinese music scene as a rising star. If she had not met Qian Xuesen, she would not have chosen to give up her booming music career when she was so successful.

Daughter of an elite family

Jiang Ying was born in Beijing on October 1, 1919 (the eighth day of the eighth lunar month) and her ancestral home was in Haining, Zhejiang Province. His father, Jiang Baili (1882–1938), was a famous military theorist and military educator during the period of the Republic of China and served as the president of Baoding Army Academy and the acting president of the Army University. Her mother Jiang Zuomei (1890–1978), was originally from Hokkaido, Japan. She graduated from Tokyo School of Nursing and Obstetrics, and then interned in the Affiliated Hospital of Imperial University of Tokyo for five years. After she married Jiang Baili in 1914, she changed her surname to his husband’s, and was renamed Zuomei by her husband.

Jiang Baili and Jiang Zuomei had five daughters in total. Jiang Ying was the third oldest in the family, and her parents nicknamed her san’er, meaning the third child, at home. The eldest daughter, Jiang Zhao, died prematurely due to illness. The second daughter, Jiang Yong, studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, joined the ambulance corps during the Anti-Japanese War, and later settled in the United States. The fourth daughter, Jiang Hua, graduated from Cornell University with a degree in nutrition and settled in Belgium, where she founded the European Zhongshan School and made important contributions to overseas Chinese education. The youngest daughter Jiang He had been on trip together with Jiang Ying and their father to Europe and America and she later settled in Beijing after the founding of People’s Republic of China.

Qian Junfu and Jiang Baili, fathers of the couple were close friends and the Qian family always wanted to find a playmate for their only son Qian Xuesen, so they begged Jiang Baili for permission to adopt Jiang Ying and to this Jiang Baili gave his blessings. At around three years old, Jiang Ying moved to the Qian family and took on a new name Qian Xueying. Later, missing her daughter so much, Jiang Zuomei took Jiang Ying back.

Jiang Baili was in deep love of his “five golden flowers.” He would never disappoint them with some fruits, Guangdong litchi, Xinhui orange, foreign melon, grapes, and snacks upon returning home from trips. But the eldest daughter Jiang Zhao unfortunately died early in life due to illness, and it was so sad for the Jiang family.

Jiang Ying spent her early childhood in Beijing and later went to live in Shanghai with her parents. When she was in Zhongxi Girls’ School, the predecessor of Shanghai No. 3 Women’s Middle School, she learned to sing and play the piano. In 1929, when Qian Xuesen was admitted to the Jiaotong University, he often visited Jiang Ying. Jiang Ying later said, “When I was in middle school, Qian Xuesen came to visit me and I introduced him to my classmates as my godbrother. I felt quite embarrassed as I was a big girl by then, and I remembered playing the piano for him. Later he went to the United States, I went to Germany, and we lost contact (Figs. 1, 2 and 3).”

Fig. 1

The “Five Golden Flowers” of Jiang Baili and Jiang Zuomei (right)

Fig. 2

Jiang Ying as a teenager

Fig. 3

In September 1936, Jiang Baili wrote a poem to Jiang Ying as encouragement

Study in Europe

At the end of 1935, Jiang Baili was dispatched to Europe and the United States to investigate military and defense. His two daughters, Jiang Ying and Jiang He, joined the family’s three-month grand tour of Europe. Jiang Ying then decided to remain in Germany to attend college and major in vocal music. In 1936, she enrolled in the prestigious von Stonefeld School in Berlin to study German, as well as English, French, Italian and Russian, in order to build up her language skills for her future studies in opera. The day before she enrolled in the school, Jiang Baili took Jiang Ying and Jiang He to the Berlin Zoo and took a picture of them, each holding a lion cub. Jiang Baili inscribed on the photo: “The ambition of the old man was not yet rested; the future would be on the four lions.” Likening his daughters to lion cubs showed Jiang Baili’s earnest wish for their daughters’ promising future. When Jiang Baili went to the United States, he went to California to visit Qian Xuesen and story went that he talked about his daughter with him and also gave Qian a picture of Jiang Ying.

After a year of language study, Jiang Ying entered the German Academy of Music in Berlin in 1937 and formally studied vocal music under the guidance of the distinguished baritone Hermann Weissenborn. Through continuous practice and with her musical talent, Jiang Ying gradually mastered the pronunciation skills such as “cadences”, “interruptions” and “through-tones” in opera, as well as how to apply the “soft connection between sound and sound” and “emotional evolution.”

It was not easy for a Chinese to sing the opera, known as “the highest skill of world vocal music”, which required a deep understanding of European literature and art as well as Greek mythology. The years in Berlin witnessed Jiang Ying’s hard work, practicing foreign languages, singing and playing the piano. She also read a large number of European classic literary works. She mingled with the life of local people and cultivated an optimistic attitude towards life through her hobbies such as photography, skiing, mountaineering and swimming.

With her diligence and hard work, Jiang Ying received the school’s comment that she was “gifted with exceptional talent, and her voice and expression were both of the highest quality.” Just as she threw herself in musical studies, news came that her father died of heart attack while traveling in Yishan, Guangxi Province on November 4, 1938. Though she longed to see his remains, the raging war kept her in Germany. In memory of his smiling voice and happy countenance, she wrote the article “Crying to Death of My Father Jiang Baili” with an extremely sad mood, expressing her endless memory for her father.

During her study at the Berlin Conservatory, Jiang Ying also participated in many singing activities in the German Grand Theater. With her rich vocal skills, she became a contracted singer of the Deloitte Wind recording company. In 1941, Jiang Ying interrupted her studies due to lung disease and spent two years in Germany and Switzerland for recuperation. After recovering in 1943, she resumed her studies under a Hungarian vocalist named Ilona Durigo in a small conservatory in the town of Lausanne, Switzerland. She started to learn German art songs and oratorios under the guidance of Ilona Durigo. In the same year, Jiang Ying was invited to participate in the European and American Soprano Competition at the Lucerne International Music annual conference in Switzerland, and won the first place in the competition. Jiang Ying was the first Asian female to win the first place since the competition was held (Figs. 4 and 5).

Fig. 4

Jiang Ying in youth

Fig. 5

Jiang Ying makes records for Deloitte Wind recording company

During her study abroad, Jiang Ying often went to sing in church in her spare time to gain stage performance and singing experience. Carl Flesch (1873–1944), a famous modern Hungarian violin pedagogue, happened to hear Jiang Ying singing when he visited the church. After listening to Jiang Ying’s singing, he lauded Jiang Ying with amazement as “the queen of singing with great promise.” This was because Jiang Ying’s singing combined the essence of both religious culture and philosophical thought, and it was difficult for ordinary singers to grasp the true essence.

In 1946, through ten years of hard work, Jiang Ying mastered the theoretical knowledge and practical skills of opera systematically, and was successful in her studies. In the same year, her sister Jiang Hua, who had studied at Cornell University in the United States and obtained a master’s degree in nutrition, also decided to return to China, so they agreed to meet in Paris, France, and return to China on the French steamship General Joffre. The steamship arrived in Shanghai. Her mother, Jiang Zuomei, waited for a long time at the pier and was so excited to see her daughters who had studied abroad for many years.

A rising star in the Chinese music scene

Jiang Ying quickly attracted the attention of local press, which reported “the lyric soprano returning home.” A report in Shanghai Newspaper Shen Bao wrote on January 29, 1947:

Ms. Jiang Ying, daughter of Jiang Baili, has been studying music in Germany and Switzerland for ten years. Recently returned to China, she is employed as a professor by the National Conservatory of Music. Ms. Jiang plans to give concerts in Beijing and Shanghai in the near future.

It was not sure whether National Conservatory of Music offered her employment or not, but Jiang Ying received invitation as a vocal music instructor by the Shanghai Zhengsheng Choir. Jiang’s return also attracted the attention of Shanghai’s cultural and educational circles. On May 16, 1947, Gu Yuxiu, director of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Education, organized and hosted a banquet specifically to welcome Jiang Ying’s return to China. At the welcome party, Jiang Ying sang solo arias from the opera Carmen and Schubert’s Song of Eternal Life, with a clear tone and rich expression, showing superb cultivation and attainment.

Jiang decided to start her musical career afresh in Shanghai, and debuted with a recital in the Lanxin Theatre in May. The recited was reported in Shen Bao Newspaper:

Ms. Jiang Ying’s recital is scheduled to be held in Lanxin Theatre on the 31st of this month. It is her first concert upon her return to China. The concert program includes songs and opera by famous artists from Germany, Italy and France, with professor Maglins at National Shanghai Music Academy as accompaniment. We expect that this recital will introduce an outstanding soprano to the Shanghai music scene, and her voice will certainly attract a wide audience.

As the final days of the recital approached, Jiang Ying was slightly nervous. She kept practicing works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Georges Bizet, Giacomo Puccini and others over and over again, and carefully designed a whole set of coherent stage performance movements, including singing postures and emotional expressions. On May 30, Shen Bao Newspaper announced that, “Soprano Jiang Ying was scheduled to give a recital at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Lanxin Grand Theatre (Figs. 6, 7 and 8).”

Fig. 6

A photo of Jiang Ying with her mother and sisters after she returned to China

Fig. 7

Poster for Jiang Ying’s Recital

Fig. 8

Jiang Ying sings at the graduation ceremony of Jianqiao Air Force School in Hangzhou on June 15, 1947

On May 31 at 5:30 p.m., Jiang Ying’s recital was held at the Shanghai Lanxin Grand Theatre. The concert lasted for more than three hours and Jiang Ying sang sixteen songs, including European arias and modern love songs, as well as two popular Chinese ballads. At the end of the concert, the Chinese and foreign audience stood up and gave Jiang Ying a standing ovation. The concert also featured two special guests: her mother Jiang Zuomei and her sister Jiang Hua. The concert was a great success and critics lauded her as one of the best sopranos in the country.

On June 15, the 24th graduation ceremony of the Jianqiao Air Force School in Hangzhou was presided over by General Zhou Zhirou, the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, and Hu Weike, the Director of Education of the Air Force School, sent a plane to Shanghai to meet Jiang Ying for the occasion. At 8:00 p.m., after the graduation ceremony, a solo concert was held in which Jiang Ying sang seven songs and Zhou Guangren was invited to accompany her on the piano. Jiang Ying’s singing received a lot of applause. Her singing was characterized with a melodious voice, which embodied the upward attitude of life and the spirit of struggle, and was therefore described as “an ode to the addition of a new force to the air force of the motherland.” Later, on June 30, Jiang Ying sang again at the graduation ceremony of Daxia University (the predecessor of East China Normal University).

With a single performance, Jiang Ying had burst upon the Chinese music scene as a rising star. Nevertheless, her performance also triggered a debate on the necessities of introducing foreign music. This was because European opera, like Chinese Peking opera, was a reflection of the history and culture of the country in which it was performed, and was a reflection of a certain social economy. Jiang Ying sang arias from operas such as “The Marriage of Figaro”, “Carmen”, and “The Troubadour”, which required of the audiences a certain level of literary knowledge to understand the meaning and feelings, and was “not as easy as listening to anti-war songs or dance music.” However, opera, as an art form, transcended national boundaries. During her stay in Europe, Jiang Ying also paid special attention in introducing opera singing skills into Chinese folk songs, and promoted the integration and development of Chinese and western music. From this perspective, the importance of Jiang Ying’s recital in 1947 in modern Chinese music history was comparable to Qian Xuesen’s lectures on the dissemination of technical and scientific ideas in 1947 in the history of modern Chinese science and technology.

2 Wedding Bill

The wedding ceremony of Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying was held on September 17, 1947, in Shanghai. The wedding was a simple one, judging from the expenses on the wedding bill. They did not have a real romantic relationship and went straight into married life at thirty-six and twenty-eight years old respectively, but this did not affect their happy life after marriage. The Chinese traditional concept of “getting married first and then falling in love”, to some extent, made them cherish each other even more in a foreign country.

Return to China

On July 1, 1947, Qian Xuesen returned to China by flight and was greeted by Fan Xuji at Shanghai Longhua Airport. Fan was in preparation of establishing the Department of Aeronautics at Zhejiang University. When he learned that Qian Xuesen’s return, he borrowed a car from the school and drove to the airport to pick him up him. After receiving Qian Xuesen, Fan drove around the Bund and then sent him to rejoin his father, who lived in Qishan Village, Yuyuan Road. On July 13, the father and son journeyed to Hangzhou by train. The first thing the father and the son did was to sweep the tomb of the beloved wife and mother Zhang Lanjuan. Qian Xuesen also went to visit his childhood calligraphy teacher Sun Jincai, who was so happy to meet his student. The father and son lived in Hangzhou for more than half a month. During this period, Qian was invited by Zhu Kezhen to give a lecture at Zhejiang University.

After returning to Shanghai from Hangzhou, Qian Xuesen received a telegram from Hu Shih, president of Peking University, on August 19, inviting him to come north so that he could “seek his advice on the development of Institute of Technology.” Qian Xuesen had a deep affection for Beiping (Beiping was changed to Beijing in 1949), where he lived for fifteen years from 1914 to 1929 with his father, who then worked for the Ministry of Education. After arriving in Beiping, Qian Xuesen made a special trip to visit Qian Weichang, who was teaching at Tsinghua University. He also visited his teachers and friends Ye Qisun, Rao Yutai, Luo Peilin, Jiang Ancai, Zhao Guangzeng, Hu Maoyuan and others. They visited the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace and other famous historic sites.

On September 1, Qian Xuesen flew back to Shanghai, and on September 27, he returned to the United States by plane. It was during this time that Qian Xuesen proposed to Jiang Ying and then they held a simple wedding ceremony in Shanghai.

A precious wedding bill

On September 30, 1947, in the bedroom on the first floor of the villa at No. 111, Qishan Village, Lane 1032, Yuyuan Road, Shanghai, Qian Junfu took out his account book, brush and ink as usual to record his income and expense for the month. In addition to daily expenses such as rent, rice, salt, soy sauce, sugar and so on, there was an additional expense for the wedding of Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying. He wrote in his account book:

Wedding envelopes and car expenses at 831,000 yuan; gifts for the couple, a pair of seals at 390,000 yuan; marriage certificate at 338,000 yuan; wedding banquets of four tables at 3,658,000 yuan; Shanghai and Hangzhou round-trip bus fare at 619,000 yuan; incense, candles and wine at 47,000 yuan; candy, towel, cigarette and milk powder at 315,000 yuan; bridal gift box and wedding gifts for guests at 310,000 yuan.

The “marriage certificate” mentioned in the account book was also called “mandarin duck album” of Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying. It consisted of the cover, the body and the back cover. The cover and the back cover were made of silk and satin, while the inside page was made of rice paper. In the inside pages, there were a paragraph of text written by Qian Xuesen’s calligraphy teacher, Sun Jincai and two illustrations, drawn by Chen Handi and Wu Shanyin respectively. One illustration was entitled Xia Qing Tu, or “Picture of Summer Clear”, symbolizing Qian Xuesen’s gentleman demeanor with bamboo; the other was a picture of colorful Phoenix and Xia crown, symbolizing Jiang Ying’s nobility and elegance with peony.

Chen Handi and Wu Shanyin were a couple and famous painters in the Republic of China. Chen Handi was the teacher of Qian Junfu and Jiang Baili at Qiushi Academy, so Qian Junfu specially sought the highly respected elder to match the lovebirds of Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying (Figs. 9 and 10).

Fig. 9

The wedding bill of Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying’s marriage

Fig. 10

The mandarin duck album of Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying, originally consisted of six folded pages

After Qian Junfu finished his accounts, he put aside his pen and could not help but think of the situation two months ago when his son returned to China. For Qian Junfu, the marriage was his biggest wish, and the scene of the wedding at Sassoon Mansion in Shanghai on September 17 was still vivid in his mind. At this time, Qian Xuesen had returned to the United States, and his daughter-in-law Jiang Ying was applying for a visa, and expecting to reunite with Qian Xuesen at the end of the year.

A simple wedding

For Qian Xuesen, marrying Jiang Ying was undoubtedly the happiest thing and the marriage was the earnest wish of his father. Interestingly, Qian Junfu once asked Jiang Ying to help introduce a girlfriend to his son. Jiang Ying held a welcome party for Qian Xuesen and invited several female friends. Qian looked absent-minded at the party as “he was completely attracted by Jiang Ying at the party and didn’t pay attention to others at all”, mentioned Jiang Hua. In the next few days, Qian went to Jiang’s house and asked Jiang Ying to marry him. Jiang Ying declined him at first as she worried about the differences in professions between the two and also was reluctant to be separated from her family.

Seeing that his sister Jiang Ying was still worried, Jiang Hua invited Qian Xuesen to their home for several days so that the two could know more about each other. One day, Qian Xuesen suddenly asked Jiang Ying, “Come to America with me!” Qian made a second attempt several days later. Jiang Ying recognized his earnestness in this matter and finally accepted his proposal. She said humorously years later: “I surrendered without saying much.”

The two families started to get busy for the wedding. Qian Xuesen, accompanied by his father, made a special trip back to Hangzhou to sweep the tomb of his mother, Zhang Lanjuan, and to console his mother’s spirit in heaven with the wedding news. Afterwards, the couple went to take wedding photos in Shanghai Guangyi photo studio on Nanjing Road. The owner of the studio, Zhang Danzi, received them warmly and took pictures of the couple personally and he also acted as the photographer at the wedding. Qian Junfu booked the Beijing restaurant in Chinachem hotel in Sassoon building, which was called “the first grand building in the Far East”, as the venue for the wedding.

On September 17, 1947, the wedding was held. The wedding ceremony adopted a combination of Chinese and Western etiquette, simple but grand. The wedding was attended mainly by relatives and friends from the two families, with more than 100 people sitting at four tables. The witness of the wedding was Yu Bin [1], Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nanjing, as the bride’s mother Jiang Zuomei was a Catholic. At the wedding, Yu Bin blessed the couple with the four words of “truth, goodness, beauty and purity”. According to the convention, every relative and friend should sign on the blank page in the mandarin duck album when they arrived at the wedding site. The signed page was torn off by Jiang Ying reluctantly during “Cultural Revolution”. Qian Yonggang once said (Figs. 11, 12 and 13):

The mandarin duck album was the witness of my parents’ marriage. The original one had six pages, but now it had only five. My mother tore one page off during the “Cultural Revolution.” Although Premier Zhou (Zhou Enlai) had my family protected, my mother was still very cautious and tore the page off, on which many celebrities in the Republic of China left their signatures. My mother must be very reluctant in doing this, but it was precisely such a move that the mandarin duck album could be preserved.

Fig. 11

Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying’s wedding photo taken in Shanghai Guang Yi Photo Studio

Fig. 12

Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying receiving blessings from friends and relatives

Fig. 13

The bride and groom toasting to friends and relatives

After Qian Xuesen returned to the United States, he bought a Steinway grand piano as a wedding gift for Jiang Ying, who gave up her music career and became a full-time wife to support her husband’s research and teaching work. The birth of their son Qian Yonggang in 1948 and Qian Yongzhen in 1950 brought infinite joy to the family.

3 Wedded Life

Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying had lived in the United States for eight years, in Boston for the first two years and in Los Angeles for the next six years, from their marriage in 1947–1955, when they returned to China. During this period, they had a son and a daughter. Qian Xuesen not only wore the different hats of scientist, teacher, and administrator, but also was the pillar of the family while Jiang Ying chose to give up her music career on her own initiative in order to better perform her domestic duties. Their family life was the marriage style of “breadwinning men and homemaking women”.

The newly-wedded couple in Boston

In November 1947, Jiang Ying applied for a visa to the United States at the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai and joined her husband at the end of the year. Going to America must have been a bittersweet choice for her. She gave up her favorite music career and became a full-time housewife so that Qian Xuesen could devote himself to research and teaching. Their marriage life was serene and happy. They respected and cared for each other. Qian fully supported Jiang Ying’s interests and hobbies. Every week, they frequented to Boston Symphony Orchestra to enjoy the symphonies, concerts and operas. The two of them were in the honeymoon and closely bound together (Figs. 14 and 15).

Fig. 14

Qian Xuesen and his son Qian Yonggang

Fig. 15

Jiang Ying and his son Qian Yonggang

On October 13, 1948, their son was born. Qian Xuesen named the baby boy Yonggang, with “yong” the Chinese character in the family line and “gang” meaning strong and firm. Qian immediately informed his father of the birth. Qian Junfu was very happy and had “good luck red eggs” distributed to his relatives and friends in China. He wrote in his account book: “Yonggang, my eldest grandson was born on October 13 at nine o’clock in the city of Boston, United States.” At this stage, Qian Xuesen had a successful career, was a new father and had a happy family. It was not until the summer of 1949 that Qian Xuesen accepted the Robert Goddard position at Caltech, and served as the director of the newly established Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Center and returned to live in Los Angeles again.

In the first half of 1949, Qian Xuesen had already started preparing for his next semester at Caltech. Since his marriage, Qian had not taken Jiang Ying out on a proper trip, so he took her on a 10 day trip to Canada from June 6 to 16 to make up for their honeymoon. In July 1949, Qian and Jiang drove from Boston to Los Angeles with their infant son, Qian Yonggang. On the way, they also made a special trip to Cornell University, where they met briefly with Guo Yonghuai and W. R. Sears. Just before Qian Xuesen left for Los Angeles, he was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston on May 12, 1949, because of his outstanding scientific achievements (Fig. 16).

Fig. 16

This back photo is a snapshot of Qian Xuesen and Guo Yonghuai’s thirty-year friendship (taken by Jiang Ying, from left, Qian Xuesen, Li Pei, Guo Yonghuai)

Life at Los Angeles

Pasadena in Los Angeles was a familiar city to Qian Xuesen, where he had studied and lived for ten years and had a lot of fond memories. Now he took Jiang Ying and his son Yonggang to live in Los Angeles, a revisit to the old place. As a scholar with high reputation, Caltech offered him an annual salary of $10,000, a teaching assistant and three scholarships per year, as well as a seven-year research fund totaling $500,000. Upon his return to Pasadena, Qian Xuesen rented a cottage with a garden in the Oaknoll community. Qian later recalled: “The three of us, Ying Jiang, I and our child, arrived at Caltech in the fall of 1949, and I lived the life of a typical professor, teaching and researching in addition to being a consultant for General Jet.” Shortly after arriving at Caltech, Qian and Jiang attended the 1949 Mid-Autumn Festival celebration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China held by the Caltech Reunion at Tournament Park (Fig. 17).

Fig. 17

Qian Xuesen “walking his son” (Photo by Jiang Ying)

It was widely known that Qian Xuesen had been confined in the United States from 1950 to 1955, during which he had been denied of security clearance to classified documents and military projects. Despite anger, confuse and fear, Qian Xuesen remained optimistic. His daily life was regular and he spent more time with his family. After breakfast, he drove the two children to the kindergarten, and then went to school to work. After work, he picked up the children home. Jiang Ying was busy with housework and would practice music in her spare time and read British and American literary works. Dinner was usually cooked by Jiang Ying, and Qian occasionally cooked. Family became the focus of Qian Xuesen’s life. They bought a lot of children’s music records, story books and all kinds of toys for their two children, and often took them to the park. Qian narrated later on: “During the five years from 1950 to 1955, when I was suspected and investigated by the U.S. government, Jiang Ying had made great sacrifices for the family which I must not forget.” After they returned to China, Jiang Ying took care of the family, Qian Xuesen’s father and her mother. Jiang Ying was a much praised daughter-in-law as Qian Junfun mentioned in his later years. Zheng Zhemin, a doctorate supervised by Qian Xuesen, mentioned that he always went to his house and was invited having meals with them, and he often took the two kids to climb hills nearby.

Qian Xuesen’s personal freedom was largely limited during the five years due to U.S. government’s surveillance. He was unable to communicate directly with his father. Jiang Ying would write, receive and send the letters. Qian reduced interpersonal and social activities in order to avoid implicating others. He stopped attending the activities of the North American branch of the Chinese Association of Scientists, considering that “his actions were monitored by American spies and it was inconvenient for these kinds of activities.” When he was able to leave America for China, he received a farewell call from Yuan Jialiu and Wu Jianxiong and he just said to them “you are American citizens, I won’t talk to you.”

Music was dear companion to Qian Xuesen in cheering him up. In her later years, Jiang Ying said: “When I sung, he was alongside me. Music freed us from loneliness.” Qian would regularly listen to the symphonies of Béla Bartók and Ludwig van Beethoven. “It was the persistent strength in Bartok’s music that Qian Xuesen liked”, Luo Peilin explained, “This may be his emotional connection with Bartok as a lonely scientist from China (Figs. 18, 19 and 20).”

Fig. 18

Qian Xuesen and his daughter Qian Yongzhen (Photo by Jiang Ying)

Fig. 19

Jiang Ying and her daughter Qian Yongzhen (photo by Qian Xuesen)

Fig. 20

A photo of Qian Yonggang and Qian Yongzhen (photo by Qian Xuesen)

4 Income and Expenditure

Qian Xuesen was born into a privileged family and lived in Beijing as a teenager, receiving the best education. Although he was in financial distress due to family reasons, he was fortunate to be admitted to Tsinghua University as a Boxer Scholarship student so that he was able to complete his master’s and doctoral studies in the United States. After Qian Xuesen was employed at MIT and Caltech, his financial situation was improved. However, what he pursued was not a wealthy life but scholarly contribution and spiritual freedom.

Scholarship

Qian Xuesen’s father, Qian Junfu, served as a minor official in the Ministry of Education and the acting director of the Department of Education of Zhejiang Province. His mother was from a family of silk merchants whose members had obtained powerful political posts in Shanghai and Hangzhou. When Qian Junfu first came to Beijing in 1914, he had a monthly salary of 280 yuan. In 1920 and 1921, due to awards for his excellent work, his monthly salary was increased to 300 yuan and had “annual merit reward” of 500 yuan per year. Moreover, he would also receive a travel subsidy of 200 yuan per month for his inspection trips outside Beijing [2]. Qian Xuesen had lived a happy life in Beijing, taken good care of by a maid and went to school and back home by a chartered rickshaw. The family’s economy went down partly because Qian Xuesen’s mother was ill at the end of 1934. Medical expenses and funeral expenses were expensive, resulting in family distress. This could be also seen from Qian Xuesen’s letter to the president’s office of Tsinghua University on June 3, 1935 in which he wrote: “The accounting office of the University had not issued the travel expenses. Xuesen was really unable to make long-term advances. I sincerely request the accounting office to send me the travel allowance and the living expenses in June [3].”

At the time when Qian Xuesen went to the United States, his family was in financial difficulties. His father’s good friend, Zhu Mouxian once provided them with financial assistance, which Qian Xuesen cherished a deep gratefulness. During the World War II, He remitted a sum of money to Zhu Weiheng, sun of Zhou Mouxian, who then studied in the United States [4]. Qian Xuesen quickly adapted himself to live an independent life while studying in the United States. He washed clothes, cleaned the rented apartment and so on, by himself.

Tsinghua University had a strict management system for the scholarship provided for students studying in the U.S. Before 1933, the Office of the Supervisor of Students in the U.S., located in Washington, D.C., was responsible for the distribution of scholarship. In 1933, Tsinghua University entrusted the affairs to the China Institute in America. Qian Xuesen received a monthly allowance of $100 for his living expenses [5], slightly higher than the government’s subsidy of $1,080 per year for students studying in the United States in the same period [6]. Ma Zusheng, a graduate majored in chemistry in Tsinghua University in 1934 and studying for a doctorate at the University of Chicago said:

Most of the state-funded students administered through Tsinghua University entered famous universities in the United States. In addition to good learning conditions, such as experimental equipment, library learning resources and so on, these universities were open-minded, well managed and had strong teaching staff. Students have opportunities to be taught by Nobel laureates. Of course, the tuitions were also high, but for these students with scholarship from Tsinghua University there was no problem at all. Before going abroad, they received traveling and dress subsidies and monthly allowance, and while in U.S., there were no restrictions on tuition and medical expenses. In addition, their dissertation printing fees, diploma fees and travel expenses were also covered [7].

As mentioned earlier, Qian Xuesen had extended his study time for twice, and he received a scholarship totaling $4,800. It was this large sum of money that supported his life and study in the United States, enabling him to complete his doctoral studies.

Financial independence

In September 1939, Qian Xuesen served as an assistant researcher in the Department of Aeronautics at Caltech, with an annual salary of $2,000 [8], or $200 for each month as salary was distributed for ten month in American universities at that time, which was the average salary level of new employees at Caltech. In 1950, when Luo Peilin was an assistant professor upon graduation from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Caltech, his annual salary and bonus were a bit over $2,000 [9]. Two hundred dollars was equal to about 760 yuan according to the exchange rate at that time. Compared with universities in China at the same period, Qian’s salary was much higher than that of professors in Chinese universities such as Tsinghua University and Peking University in the same period, which was 300 yuan per month [10].

In September 1943, Qian Xuesen was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics, and in November 1945, he was promoted to be an associate professor. In August 1946, he went to the Department of Aeronautics of the MIT as an associate professor, and was promoted to full professorship in March of the following year. The diary of Zhu Kezhen, president of Zhejiang University provides valuable historical information about Qian Xuesen’s salary. On February 27, 1947, during his visit to the United States, Zhu Kezhen talked with Dai Zhenduo, a doctoral student of Harvard University on the five Chinese outstanding scholars majored in engineering in MIT. Zhu wrote in his diary:

Qian Xuesen, graduate of Jiaotong University, majored in hydrodynamics fluid mechanics; Gu Peimu, graduate of Jiaotong University, majored in Airplane engine; Lin Jiaqiao, graduate of Tsinghua University, majored in aerodynamics; Liu Yijin, majored in mechanical engineering; Zhu Lancheng, majored in radar. Qian, Lin and Zhu are associate professors with an annual income of $7,000, and Gu and Liu are assistant professors with an annual income of $5,000 [11].

In the letter from the president’s office of MIT, kept in the Qian Xuesen Library at Jiaotong University, Qian Xuesen was informed that his annual professorial salary was increased to $9,000 as of July 1948 [12]. In 1949, Qian Xuesen returned to Caltech as director of Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Center, with an annual salary of $10,000. Based on the above archival records, it was estimated that Qian Xuesen’s annual salary at each title stage was $2,000 as assistant researcher, $5,000 as assistant professor, $7,000 as associate professor, $9,000 as professor at MIT, and $10,000 as professor at Caltech. According to the above data, Qian Xuesen’s total salary during his teaching period in the United States from 1939 to 1955 exceeded $100,000.

Salary was not the only source of income. Qian Xuesen published more than fifty academic papers while he was in the United States, and his manuscript fees were also a significant source of income. For example, the manuscript fee for The Poincaré–Lighthill–Kuo Method, published in Advances in Applied Mechanics, was $112 [13]. If this was the standard calculation, Qian Xuesen’s income from manuscript fees alone during his stay in the United States would be US $5,000–6,000. In addition, the English edition of his academic book, Engineering Cybernetics, was printed twice in 1954 and 1955, and sold 3,080 copies worldwide, earning $2,333.65 in royalties. Furthermore, he held a number of positions, such as a member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the Army Air Corps of the U.S. Department of Defense, an expert advisor to the Bureau of Military Affairs of the U.S. Department of War, and a member of the U.S. National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics and so on. It was unknown whether these positions were paid and the amount of remuneration. Nevertheless, the stable source of income was mainly his salary.

In short, Qian Xuesen was financially independent since his teaching career started, and his salary was higher than that of his contemporaries in American and Chinese universities. A side-by-side comparison can be made with Hu Shih, whose monthly salary as ambassador to the United States at that time was US $540 (US $6,480 per year), nearly one-third less than that of Qian Xuesen. Qian Xuesen was not in pursuit of an affluent life after he was financial better off; instead, he was trying to find the direction of spiritual freedom.

Categories of expenditure

On September 16, 1955, Qian Xuesen went to the First National Bank of Los Angeles and withdrew his entire demand deposit of $1,007.64 [14]. In the following day, he and his family returned home on the steamship President Cleveland. It was puzzling why Qian returned home with a deposit of a bit over $1,000, considering that his total income in U.S. was over $100,000.

A glance at the expenditures at different stages during his 20-years stay in the United States could shed us some light. The living expenses altered in different periods and covered different areas, which can be summarized into the following three categories.

1. Daily living expenses as a student

As mentioned earlier, as a student with scholarship from Tsinghua University, Qian Xuesen received $520 for traveling abroad and $100 for living expenses from the Chinese American Association for the advancement of life per month. Pu Xuefeng, also a student with scholarship from Tsinghua University, recalled: “When I first arrived in the United States, I had all the coats, suits, shirts, shoes and so on. Although the monthly fee was only eighty dollars, it was enough to cover the living expenses. Later, the monthly fee was increased from eighty to one hundred dollars so that we could pay coats, raincoats, suits, leather gloves, leather shoes and books and other items [15].”

If one studied in a big city in the United States, such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, or Oakland, the minimum amount for food, lodging, and incidental expenses was $65 a month, to be specific, $40 a month for food, $20 for lodging, and $5 for pocket money. Sixty-five dollars was quite a miserable living while eighty to one hundred dollars was the cost of living for the average Chinese student [16]. It can be seen that the financial support from Tsinghua University could guarantee basic living needs, but it was not generous. Qian Xuesen’s tuition fee was sent directly to the school by the Chinese American Association, so his daily living expenses were mainly rent and food expenses [17]. Qian had lived in dormitory at MIT and then shared with the apartment with Fan Xuji and Yuan Jialiu. As Yin Hongzhang, who studied at the Caltech for a doctorate in biology recalled: “As Caltech was a private school, tuition fee was especially high. There were few students, only two or three hundred at that time, and most of them were the children from wealthy families. For us students with scholarship, we could make the ends meet while other graduate students had to take part-time job. Dormitories were also very expensive, so most students chose to live outside campus [18].”

Three meals a day was a considerable expense. As students with scholarship were not permitted to work part-time, they must make full use of $100 per month. Therefore, Qian Xuesen often cooked or packed meals with his classmates to reduce expenses. It was about $1.3–1.5 per day with three meals at school, and $28–$30 per month. Therefore, accommodation remained the largest part of expenditure, accounting for two-thirds of the daily expenses.

2. Remittance to his father

Qian Xuesen was very frugal as a single person, and even though he had a generous annual salary since he worked, his daily expenses were still kept to a minimum. His income he saved was used for other purposes, the most important of which was to remit to his father Qian Junfu in China. When Zhang Lanjuan passed away in 1934, Qian Junfu became depressed and suffered from severe stomach problems, so he resigned from his post at the Department of Education of Zhejiang Province and recuperated at home in Hangzhou. After the Lugouqiao Incident in 1937, the Japanese bombed Hangzhou in 1937. Qian Junfu went to Shanghai to escape the chaos and lived in No. 111, Qishan Village, Lane 1032, Yuyuan Road. Qian Junfu had lived there for nearly twenty years until 1955, when Qian Xuesen returned to China and moved to Beijing.

Little known was that Qian Junfu recorded in his account book in detail the amount of 111 remittances made by Qian Xuesen from 1938 to 1951. According to the chronological order, the remittances include: (1) 8,743.00 in paper currency from 1938 to 1942 (paper currency issued by the KMT government from 1935 to 1948); (2) 6,310,000.00 in reserve certificates from 1943 to 1946; (3) 230,000.00 in paper currency in 1946; and (4) 5,327.00 in US dollars from 1945 to 1951. From the account book, it can be seen that Qian Junfu received the first remittance of paper currency 101.00 in December 1938 when Qian Xuesen was still studying for a doctoral degree; therefore, it can be inferred that he must have saved it from the Tsinghua University scholarship.

Qian Xuesen’s remittances supported his father’s living in Shanghai. Even when Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese, he did not stop the remittance, as Li Linxiang, a student of Qian Junfu, recalled: “At that time, Since Shanghai was occupied by Japan, and Mr. Qian refused to work under the government of Japanese occupation, his living was mainly maintained by Qian Xuesen remitting money from the United States.” When Qian Xuesen was in U.S. government surveillance in 1950, his personal freedom was restricted and he could not send money to his father, but whenever he heard that someone would return to China, he would entrust him to bring some dollars to his father. For example, when Luo Shijun, a doctoral student supervised by Qian Xuesen, returned to China in 1951, Qian Xuesen entrusted him to bring 300 dollars in cash to his father.

The remittance recorded in Qian Junfu’s account book [19] was a true record of Qian Xuesen’s filial piety as a son to his father. It was not only about the living expenses, but also showed Qian Xuesen’s deep love for his father. Whenever Qian Junfu received the money, he must feel his son’s filial piety. During his stay in the United States, it was through this form of communication that the father and the son showed their concerns for each other. It was a true revelation of the mutual care and love between the father and the son.

3. Living expenses after establishing a family

After Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying got married in 1947, their living expenses increased significantly. These family living expenses mainly included rent, daily meals, clothes, baby items, toys, and a large number of records and books on fetal education and early education. In addition, there was also a daily expense, the professional journals and books bought at his own expense.

It had to be mentioned that Qian Xuesen paid high attorney fees for hiring lawyers to fight lawsuits in the last five years in the United States. For example, when Qian Xuesen hired a lawyer for the first time, the cost was as high as $2,500. It should also be noted that the $15,000 bail money paid by Qian Xuesen after his detention in 1950 was advanced by his friend Pauline Riedberg Milles in the form of a purchase of U.S. bonds. Qian Xuesen later said: “The bail was $15,000 and I could really be ‘proud’ of, compared to the usual ransom of one or two thousand demanded by robbers for kidnapping. Naturally I could not get such a large sum of money, and the bail was paid by the American friend on my behalf [20].”

Qian Xuesen’s bankbook only had five cash deposits from 1949 to 1950, except for $660.56 when it was processed: $2.00 on July 21, 1949, $118.55 on January 12, 1950, $76.12 on March 12, 1950, $51.86 on August 10, 1950 and $48.92 on December 18, 1950. Strangely enough, Qian Xuesen took out $900.00 on October 13, 1950, yet deposited it back on October 24. It was unknown whether it was because he intended to hire a lawyer when he was preparing to return to China. It was worth noting that Qian Xuesen did not deposit any money after 1951, perhaps because of the balanced daily income and expenditure, or because he was preparing for leaving the United States at any time (Figs. 21 and 22).

Fig. 21

Qian Xuesen’s kitchen at his home in Pasadena, Los Angeles

Fig. 22

Qian Xuesen’s current account passbook

In fact, when the United States lifted the restrictions on Qian Xuesen’s departure, he could have chosen to stay in the United States and live an affluent life with a good annual salary, but he resolutely chose to return to China. From this point of view, Qian Xuesen did not go to the United States to pursue an affluent life. If he had aimed to stay in the United States, he could have made long-term plans for his family. He said in later years:

In all my time in the United States, I have never thought of staying there for the rest of my life, and I say that with good reason. Because in the United States, once a person joins the workforce, he or she always deposits a portion of his or her income into an insurance company for later retirement. During my stay in the U.S., I was asked several times if I had saved any insurance money, and they were surprised when I said I didn’t save a single dollar. In fact, it’s no surprise, because I’m Chinese and I don’t plan to live in the US for the rest of my life [21].

When he was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times before leaving the United States on September 17, 1955, he said with confidence and pride:

When I return to China, I will do my best to help the Chinese people build a nation where they will get along with dignity and happiness.