Yan Dongsheng (C) works in the laboratory of the Chemistry Department in Yenching University in 1937.

Author：Yan Yanlai, daughter of Yan Dongsheng, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the founder of China’s inorganic material science

Once my father was asked by a journalist, “What’s your greatest regret in life?” he said his greatest regret was having “no regret”. I still remember the scene though many years passed. He gave that answer with a smile at the occasion. Frankly speaking, my father was humble and content with what he had. He always said “I have been lucky all my life” while talking about his life.

However, when I was thinking about his precious memories and jotting them down, that particular remark pops out. I could not help but wonder if it may have been a mild and indirect way to express his understanding and reflection of his unusual life.

My father received first-class education since senior primary school and received a doctorate degree in 1949 in University of Illinois in the US. As soon as New China was founded, my father was one of the first students studying abroad that eagerly returned home, therefore, his scientific career was during the same age as that of New China.

Yan discusses academics with his wife in 1961.

Fortunately, my father had weathered several decades of political upheaval; at the beginning of China’s reform and opening-up, he was put in an important position by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), becoming a promoter of China’s reform and opening-up and the strategy of invigorating the country through science, technology and education. His talent enabled him to be a scientist and a pioneer and executor of CAS’s reform, opening-up and rebirth. My father’s lifelong love of scientific research and his career in scientific research management exceeded that of his classmates, friends, and almost all the world's top peers in his academic field. He seemed to be bestowed with heaven’s blessing and inborn conservatism.

In the last year of his life, one of his hobbies was quite weird. He recalled the name of his old friends, ranging from the classmates, colleagues, relatives and friends before the liberation of China to the colleagues in the public laboratories, research institutes and the CAS, as well as the old acquaintances, senior academicians in different CAS divisions. He kept looking up at the list of academicians of CAS and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. I was usually asked to answer to his inquiry about those people, sometimes he himself called the CAS office for confirmation. He recorded the names of more than 100 people on three pieces of A4-size cards, murmuring and reciting with self-deprecating humor -- “It’s rather baffling, silly!” On one hand, he was immersed in the past and exercised his memory (he could remember the name of a friend that he had not seen for about precisely 60 years); on the other hand, I learned that the most precious treasure in his memory was the people who had common experiences.

The habit and pace of life, as well as his working style and methods were consistent from beginning to end. He said, “To cope with shifting events by sticking to a fundamental principle.” The ten years of working in CAS was the busiest period in his life, but he managed to handle all the work at hand. He was the then (First) Vice President of CAS, equivalent to today’s executive vice president (Lu Jiaxi was the then CAS President). All the middle-level cadres knew that "Yan is a hard-working man" (and they also privately used “premier-like” to vividly describe his working style). He took charge of several CAS-level major research projects, chaired the establishment of CAS’s Natural Science Foundation and the appraisal mechanism for the Foundation, directed the affairs involving international exchange and cooperation, established the bilateral partnership with United States National Academy of Sciences and presided over the first round of CAS’s structural reform after the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

At the same time, he returned to Shanghai once a month, listened to the graduate students’ report on their research progress for four or five hours on Sunday mornings. He never suspended his guidance to graduate students and their research projects. Incredibly, he kept the habit of playing tennis twice or three times a week, staying on pace with life, falling asleep at eleven and getting up at seven, and replying mails and writing letters to friends and relatives. In my opinion, the atmosphere of our family has remained the same for decades -- an affectionate couple, a harmonious family, filial children and grandchildren, ordinary and peaceful, and perhaps this is the regret of having "no regrets".

In my father’s own words, “I was fairly lucky and had the opportunity to meet highly talented people who guided and supported me at all times.” His luck was that his talent and abilities had been put into use at the historical moment. At the turning point when the “cultural revolution” was over, when wrong things were corrected and the rejuvenation was urgent, my father was appointed to attend a seminar on science and education chaired by Deng Xiaoping in August 1977 and made a keynote speech at the event; in 1980, my father was elected as a member of the CAS Presidium and vice president in a “one-man-one-vote” democratic election. That is to say, my father turned to one of the major managerial staff of CAS from a pure scholar in the period that former CAS President Guo Moruo had called it “Spring for scientific development”. Then he was appointed to serve as the secretary of the Party Group and vice president of CAS, and presided over the structural reform of CAS. To our surprise, the task of presiding over the drafting of the Outline for the Reform of the Scientific and Technological System of the Chinese Academy of Sciences fell on a purely scholar, not a veteran Party cadre. It’s true! My father loved science and the construction of New China; he was keen on scientific research and excelled at scientific management with a macroscopical and strategic vision; he had a noble character, good command of knowledge and rich experience, universal value, and proficiency in both Chinese and English; he was modest, kind, tolerant, and elegant. However, when he shouldered the responsibility as the secretary of the CAS Party Group, his Western-styled manner which emanated from inside to outside seemed to be filled with a scholar’ style. People with similar manner are willing to cooperate with him wholeheartedly, and the others may keep themselves far away from him. My father really couldn't do the same thing as his predecessor did -- making house-to-house visits, have heart-to-heart talks and keep a wide range of contacts; he didn't do that deliberately; he never joined any group, which was his instinct and wisdom.

My father liked talking about his proudest stories in his experience at the dining table, and usually only with the family but never showed off to others. At his age of 97, it was his last year that he could have dinner with us. All he said then remains nothing but memories. He recalled all the proud things. Besides his most favorite scientific research, the most impressive things were the two achievements he made at the age of 60 -- one was the structural reform of CAS, the other was the international exchange and cooperation of CAS.

The tenure of my father was also during the hardest time of CAS’s transition. He had to face pressure for dual responsibilities -- the task given by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council -- the application demand of economic development versus the strong desire of restoring fundamental scientific research of the old academicians and intellectuals who survived the “cultural revolution”. He presented petition to the superior for the intellectuals and gave suggestions on guiding demands for the nation’s economic development. Though he was trapped in a dilemma, he did not flinch but was firm, open-minded, easygoing and skillful to deal with difficulties. He never had his report written by secretary but made an outline on his manual all by himself, which enabled him to give an extemporaneous speech on structural reform of scientific and technological system at CAS branches and institutes with his secretary and driver. As his daughter (I am a faculty member of institution of higher education), I can feel and witness his dedication and loyalty to scientific research.

Another thing he enjoys talking about and recalling is international cooperation and signing agreements on international exchanges and cooperation with countries around the world. He himself not only participated in CAS’s opening-up, but also been appointed to represent CAS to communicate and discuss with the academies and scientists from the United States, Europe and Asia. The pleasant surprise is that he often met with top foreign scholars and made personal contacts, so my parents were frequently invited to live in their home, which is an unusual expression of courtesy and friendship in the West.

I still remember it was June 30, the last year of my father’s life. He asked me to sit down and closed the door after a nap in the afternoon. So I realized that he had something to say, so I recorded it. He slowly spoke out the countries he had visited one by one and clearly recalled his experiences: After attending the National Science and Technology Conference in 1978, he was invited to visit Britain with the CAS delegation led by Hu Keshi (the then deputy secretary of the Party Group and vice president of CAS) by the Royal Academy of Britain in 1979; Chinese physicist Huang Kun’s British wife also went with them (There was an interesting story that known by few people, it’s quite funny), then the delegation went to Sweden, where CAS signed two cooperation agreements with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences; what’s more important, my father led a delegation to Washington at the invitation of the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Its president Frank Press personally welcomed them. The delegation then visited Boston, Burkle in California and University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley). During the tour in US, CAS signed cooperation agreement with the NAS and the National Science Foundation. According to the agreements, bilateral talks between CAS and NAS were held annually. The talks suspended after the June 4 Incident in 1989. Later, CAS signed bilateral cooperation agreements with Germany’s Max Planck Society, National Center for Scientific Research of France, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Indian National Science Academy. In this way, CAS established international relations with the Americas, Europe, Japan and India.

What made him suddenly tell me all that was because CAS’s publishing house asked me to pass a newly published Collection of Archival Atlas -- manuscripts of famous scientists and his part in the book reminded him of the past. He cared about the elder generations blazing a trail in which there was no path in 1980s, which was only known by a few people. But in my father’s opinion, it was the achievements created by his generation that benefited later generations. He was proud of it and sincerely hoped that what they had done could be recorded. So I asked my father: “Do you think these haven’t been mentioned yet?” His original words were recorded. “Yes, it’s supposed to be mentioned, and it can be discussed later. The international cooperation shall be written, one is the international cooperation, another is in Asia; one is about the society and the other about the academic field. At least international cooperation shall be written with a paragraph, I think, a sentence is also acceptable. The sentence -- ‘After the reform and opening-up, (CAS) established effective cooperation with the US, Europe, Asia and international organization, setting up bilateral and multilateral partnerships ’.” He said so much all at once, I understand what he felt, indeed, the first ten years of reform and opening up in CAS was the most difficult decade, but it was often touched on lightly in CAS’s history, which seems natural and quite right. As the saying goes, "When a man is dying, his words are out of goodwill." As my father was aging, his words were true. He wanted to share his experience with later generations.

My father died on Sept 18, 2016. “There are few people like your farther in the society. There won’t be such a person in the future. Such a talent cannot be found in this era, either.”After his death, some people often make such remarks to me. I think those are the highest praises for my father. That makes me want to know more about his life. I had once listened to what his senior officials and old colleagues said about him when the documentary producers visited the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. I also visited some of my father’s friends in Shanghai, learning more details in his academic career and the way of living and working in particular historical period, which touched me many times and made him cast a fresh and vivid impression in my mind. Meanwhile, as I myself grow, I have deeper and meaningful understanding of my father’s peaceful and colorful life. I would like to sincerely thank my father for giving me and my family these priceless “gifts” in a subtle way, as well as the divine conservatism and favor …

Yan Yanlai

It was written on the centenary birthday of my father on Feb 10, 2018

Source: CAS