China's Cultural Revolution started in 1966 when groups of youths and students, known as Red Guards, closed schools to free students for agitation. They campaigned against old ideas, old culture, old habits, and old customs.

In 1969, the Red Guards celebrated what they called the victorious conclusion of the Cultural Revolution. But the turmoil continued until 1976, when Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong died and the notorious Gang of Four were deposed. The gang, which had considerable power during the Cultural Revolution, included Mao's wife, Jiang Qing. Nowadays, Chinese blame the Gang of Four for the disaster of the Cultural Revolution. Mao is still revered in the country.

"During the 10 years of the Cultural Revolution, no new scientists and teachers were trained," points out Changpei Fei, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' (CAS) Institute of Chemistry in Beijing. "So there is a generation gap between those who were trained before and after the Cultural Revolution."

According to official Chinese government sources, this generation gap will cause "an academic vacuum" around 2000 when most of the leading academics in the country are expected to retire. These academics were trained before the Cultural Revolution and many not only hold top positions in universities and research institutes but are also highly influential in national and local governments.

CAS academician Youqi Tang points out that inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry were neglected during the Cultural Revolution. "Soldiers and workers, selected for political reasons, became leaders of the universities," he says. "The professors were led by the students."

Yiliang Sun, a chemistry professor at Peking University, notes that from 1966 to 1970, there was no chemical education at all. "From 1970 to 1976, some students did belong to the chemistry department at the university, but their background was weak," he tells C&EN. "The students came from farms, factories, and the military. It was hard to teach them. We taught only rare-earth chemistry, petrochemistry, and analytical chemistry, because these were considered to be the only branches of chemistry that were important."

Dawei Ma, assistant director of the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), points out that the institute's graduate study program ceased completely during the period from 1966 to 1978. "SIOC did continue with some research during this period, however," he adds.

The Chinese Chemical Society did not exist during the Cultural Revolution, notes Sun. "Chemistry was nearly dead, and what there was, was very applied," he says. "The Chinese Chemical Society was revived at a meeting in Shanghai immediately after the fall of the Gang of Four."

Fei, 54, and colleague Jiasong He, 53, a chemistry professor at the Institute of Chemistry, both graduated in 1966. But there was a gap of 12 years before they resumed their studies. "We both entered graduate school in 1978, obtained our master's degrees in 1981, and our Ph.D.s in 1985," they say. "We were among the first chemists in China to receive Ph.D.s following the Cultural Revolution. In 1984, only 15 people received Ph.D.s, mainly for theoretical research in subjects like mathematics. Before 1984, there were no Ph.D.s. Nowadays, several thousand Chinese scientists receive Ph.D.s each year."

During the Cultural Revolution, many academics were sent to remote parts of China to work as manual laborers in farms or factories.

"I worked on a farm for 18 months during the Cultural Revolution," says Xi Fu, president of the Chinese Chemical Society. "We called it the 'May 7 school' because on May 7, 1966, Mao Zedong declared that all intellectuals should be reeducated by peasants."

The careers of Li (above) and Hua have bridged China's Cultural Revolution
[Photos by Michael Freemantle]

CAS academician Lemin Li, 62, graduated from Peking University in 1959--but without a degree. Degrees were not awarded in China until 1981. Li taught chemistry for three years and, between 1962 and 1965, he carried out research in coordination chemistry as a graduate student in the department of technical physics at Peking University. During the Cultural Revolution, that department and two other university departments were moved to Shanxi Province in northwest China.

"I worked as a manager on a construction site and also did about one year of physical labor," says Li.

Peking University chemistry professor Hua Tongwen, 68, graduated from the university as a physical chemist in 1954. Like Li, she does not have a B.S. or Ph.D. degree. She spent two years, from 1968 to 1970, in Jiangxi Province during the Cultural Revolution. She worked as an agricultural laborer planting rice and vegetables. She was married, but her husband and children remained in Beijing. "It was very difficult at first," she says. "Each year we were allowed just one month to visit our families."

According to SIOC professor Min-Bo Chen, almost half of the staff at the institute went to work in the countryside. "At the time, I was a junior member of the CAS Institute of Atomic Energy in Peking," he says. "I was sent to the countryside for labor. I worked in the rice and cotton fields in Hubei Province in central China for two years. The Cultural Revolution was like a nightmare and should not be allowed to return."

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