CNHRA PERSON RECORD · CNHRA-P-774271
Fang Lizhi
Visual Records
Fang Lizhi at the second Galileo–Xu Guangqi meeting in Ventimiglia, Italy, July 2010.
Biography
Fang Lizhi was an astrophysicist who publicly advocated democracy and intellectual freedom.[1]
After graduating in physics from Peking University in 1956, Fang entered research and later taught at USTC. The China Quarterly appreciation recounts interruptions and compulsory labor during political campaigns alongside continued study of astrophysics and cosmology.[1]
The appreciation describes Fang seeking research collaborations after exclusion and ideological criticism of his Big Bang cosmology. He continued publishing and arguing for the use of theory and observation in cosmology.[1]
During the reform period, Fang took academic leadership roles, expanded international exchanges and publicly discussed intellectual freedom and political reform.[1]
While sheltering in the US embassy in Beijing, Fang received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in absentia in November 1989. His acceptance speech, Keeping the Faith, argues for human rights across national, racial, linguistic and religious boundaries, urges young people to continue their education, and advocates nonviolence. He also reports completing two astrophysics papers since June and working on a third. James H. Williams and Orville Schell translated the speech into English.[2]
Case Summary
After the June 1989 crackdown, Fang and Li Shuxian sought refuge in the US embassy in Beijing. His signed 1989 essay records his circumstances and political views during refuge.[2]
Fang and Li left China in 1990. He joined the University of Arizona in 1992, continued research and teaching and died in Tucson on April 6, 2012 without returning to China.[1]
Timeline
1989-06
Takes refuge in the US embassy
1990
Allowed to leave China
Fang and Li were allowed to leave China after roughly a year of embassy refuge. Fang continued physics research and joined the University of Arizona in 1992.[1]
2012-04-06
Dies in Tucson
The China Quarterly appreciation records Fang’s death in Tucson, Arizona. He had not returned to China after leaving in 1990.[1]
Related Events
Sources
- [1]
CNHRA-S-936443The China Quarterly
Evidence location: Body: science and public expression, embassy refuge, departure in 1990 and death in 2012.
- [2]
CNHRA-S-617501ChinaFile / The New York Review of Books
Evidence location: Signed essay and editorial introduction on embassy refuge; Acceptance speech: universal rights, nonviolence, education and continued astrophysics research; translators’ credits.
- [3]
CNHRA-S-707791Wikimedia Commons
Evidence location: Photograph, subject description, author and licensing section.