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I guess I get why he persisted while imprisoned -- anything to do to keep the mind busy. But why would he continue to work afterwards, and benefit the regime th

I guess I get why he persisted while imprisoned -- anything to do to keep the mind busy. But why would he continue to work afterwards, and benefit the regime that betrayed him? I'd want to watch it burn and then sink, be left as far behind as possible, not enable them to keep up with technological advancements.

spicybright 5y ago
This is an interesting question that shouldn't be down voted like it's being. From how the article is written (although admittedly I only skimmed it), it seems imprisonment didn't have a huge effect on his motivation to solve the problem. While I can't say I'd be as chipper after being jailed for a year, I can certainly understand the allure of attacking a hard problem with tenacity. He may have also separated the party from the people he interacted with everyday. In fact, I'd imagine being imprisoned built a lot of comradory with his fellow inmates. (Would love for someone else more knowledgeable to chime in, I just wanted to start the conversation)
bllguo 5y ago
is Mandarin the govt's language or his and the people's language? "benefiting the regime" was a mere side effect of his work (in fact the Maoists that persecuted him crumbled in the 70s, so ultimately they did not benefit at all! karmic) or maybe he just had an intellectual interest in the problem and wanted to solve it no matter what. who knows, but the world is better off for it
dwohnitmok 5y ago
The regime after the Cultural Revolution and the regime during the revolution were totally different people. The majority of China's post-Cultural Revolution leaders had themselves been at least purged, but often also imprisoned and even tortured during that period. For example Deng Xiaoping had been purged and his son left permanently paralyzed (after a failed suicide attempt due to persecution) after the two became targets during the Cultural Revolution. Basically anyone who had any sort of political power, educational attainment, or wealth was a target during the Cultural Revolution (a mildly difficult challenge is to find any Chinese figure of note who wasn't Mao who came of age before the Cultural Revolution and wasn't at least denounced. It's possible, but not as trivial as one might think). The persecution was also often bottom-up, rather than top-down. If you had any attainment or pre-Cultural Revolution power at all, you were much more likely to be beaten, strung up, and imprisoned by local teenage Red Guards often acting of their own accord than the central government. And so as a result there wasn't as much enmity towards the post-Cultural Revolution government by people who had suffered during the Cultural Revolution because often they had suffered together.

spicybright 5y ago

This is an interesting question that shouldn't be down voted like it's being. From how the article is written (although admittedly I only skimmed it), it seems imprisonment didn't have a huge effect on his motivation to solve the problem. While I can't say I'd be as chipper after being jailed for a year, I can certainly understand the allure of attacking a hard problem with tenacity. He may have also separated the party from the people he interacted with everyday. In fact, I'd imagine being imprisoned built a lot of comradory with his fellow inmates. (Would love for someone else more knowledgeable to chime in, I just wanted to start the conversation)

bllguo 5y ago

is Mandarin the govt's language or his and the people's language? "benefiting the regime" was a mere side effect of his work (in fact the Maoists that persecuted him crumbled in the 70s, so ultimately they did not benefit at all! karmic) or maybe he just had an intellectual interest in the problem and wanted to solve it no matter what. who knows, but the world is better off for it

dwohnitmok 5y ago

The regime after the Cultural Revolution and the regime during the revolution were totally different people. The majority of China's post-Cultural Revolution leaders had themselves been at least purged, but often also imprisoned and even tortured during that period. For example Deng Xiaoping had been purged and his son left permanently paralyzed (after a failed suicide attempt due to persecution) after the two became targets during the Cultural Revolution. Basically anyone who had any sort of political power, educational attainment, or wealth was a target during the Cultural Revolution (a mildly difficult challenge is to find any Chinese figure of note who wasn't Mao who came of age before the Cultural Revolution and wasn't at least denounced. It's possible, but not as trivial as one might think). The persecution was also often bottom-up, rather than top-down. If you had any attainment or pre-Cultural Revolution power at all, you were much more likely to be beaten, strung up, and imprisoned by local teenage Red Guards often acting of their own accord than the central government. And so as a result there wasn't as much enmity towards the post-Cultural Revolution government by people who had suffered during the Cultural Revolution because often they had suffered together.