Fang Lizhi
| Fang Lizhi 方励之 |
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|---|---|
.jpg)
2010
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| Born |
12 February 1936 Peking (now Beijing), China |
| Died | 6 April 2012 (aged 76) Tucson, Arizona, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Astrophysicist |
| Known for | 1986 Student Demonstrations |
| Spouse(s) | Li Shuxian (m. 1961–2012) |
| Fang Lizhi | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 方勵之 | ||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 方励之 | ||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Fāng Lìzhī |
| IPA | [fáŋ lîʈʂí] |
Fang Lizhi (February 12, 1936 – April 6, 2012) was a Chinese astrophysicist, vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China, and activist whose liberal ideas inspired the pro-democracy student movement of 1986–87 and, finally, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Because of his activism, he was expelled from the Communist Party of China in January 1987. For his work, Fang was a recipient of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1989, given each year to an individual whose courageous activism is at the heart of the human rights movement and in the spirit of Robert F. Kennedy's vision and legacy.
Fang Lizhi was born on 12 February 1936 in Peking. His father worked on the railway. In 1948, one year before the PLA took over the city, as a student of the Beijing No.4 High School, he joined an underground youth organization that was associated to CCP. One of his extracurricular activities was assembling radio receivers from used parts.
In 1952, he enrolled in the Physics Department at Peking University. There he met and fell in love with his future wife, Li Shuxian (李淑娴/嫻). Both Fang and Li were among the top students in their class. He joined CCP upon graduation, worked the Institute of Modern Physics and became involved in the secret atomic bomb program of China, while Li stayed at Peking University as a junior faculty.
In 1957, during the Hundred Flowers Campaign, people were strongly encouraged by the CCP to openly express their opinions and criticisms. As party members, Li, Fang and another person in the physics department planned to write a letter to the party to offer their suggestions on education. This letter was still unfinished by the time the Hundred Flowers Campaign abruptly came to an end and the Anti-Rightist Campaign started. The opinions and criticisms solicited during the earlier campaign were then interpreted as "attacks on the party", and those who expressed such opinions were labelled "rightist" and persecuted. Although no one knew about the unfinished letter, out of loyalty to the party, the three naive young people confessed about it, and Li also confessed to the party her doubts on the party. Li was expelled from the party, and was sentenced to hard labour at Zhaitang near Beijing. Fang was not immediately expelled from the party, because he played a lesser role in writing the letter, and also because he had left Peking University, where the punishment was particularly severe. Still, he was removed from the nuclear program, and sent to do hard labour in Zanhuang, Hebei province from December 1957 to August 1958. Out of political pressure, Li and Fang put their relationship on hold until early 1959, when Fang was also expelled from the party. Fang was reassigned to the faculty of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in August 1958, and in 1961 married Li, who remained a faculty of Peking University. In spite of his experience in the anti-Rightist campaign, he published an article in the Guangming Daily, encouraging the independent thinking of students.
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