The Man Who Loved China

by Simon Winchester

  Professor Gregory Blue, who teaches world history at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, served as Joseph Needham’s personal assistant in Cambridge through most of the 1980s; the advice and assistance he offered to me was quite invaluable, as was his hospitality when I traveled to Victoria.

  H. T. Huang, who was Needham’s secretary and long-suffering travel companion during most of his wartime years in China, offered much help and advice from his present home in Alexandria, Virginia. His own long life—with its interludes as escapee, refugee, distinguished scholar, and science policy maker—could well be the subject of a fascinating book. I greatly enjoyed meeting him in Washington and listening to his reminiscences.

  Red Chan, who teaches at the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Warwick, accompanied me on all my journeys throughout China, acting most ably as translator and general fixer. I am greatly indebted to her.

  I should also like to record my gratitude to the following, who had specific knowledge of aspects of Needham’s life, or of China, and who were happy to share their knowledge or advice: Paul Aiello (Hong Kong), Robert Bickers (Bristol), Anne-Marie Brady (Canterbury, New Zealand), Francesca Bray (Edinburgh), Tom Buchanan (Oxford), Daniel Burton-Rose (Berkeley), Eric Danielson (Shanghai), Alan Donald (London), Ryan Dunch (Alberta), Gisele Edwards (London), Stephen Endicott (Toronto), Daniel Fertig (Hong Kong), Stephen Forge (Oundle), Edward Hammond (The Sunshine Project, Austin, Texas), May Holdsworth (London), Elisabeth Hsu (Oxford), John Israel (Kunming), Ron Knapp (New Paltz, NY), William Mackay (Hong Kong), Martin Merz (Hong Kong), George Ngu (Fuzhou), Peter Nolan (Cambridge), Michael Ravnitzky (New York), Priscilla Roberts (Hong Kong), Donald Saari (Irvine, California), Elinor Shaffer (London), Michael Sharp (Cambridge), Nathan Sivin (Philadelphia), Martha Smalley (Yale), Neil Smith (Dulwich School), Rob Stallard (SACU), Michael Sullivan (Oxford), Tony Sweeting (Hong Kong), Michael Szonyi (Harvard), David Tang (Hong Kong), Robert Temple (London), Dan Waters (Hong Kong), Jocelyn Wilk (Columbia U.), George Wilson (Bloomington, Indiana), Frances Wood (British Library), Lilian Wu (Hong Kong).

  My agents—especially Suzanne Gluck of the William Morris Agency in New York, with the able assistance of Georgia Cool and Sarah Ceglarski, and together with the help of Eugenie Furniss of the William Morris office in London, championed this book from the moment they first saw it, and did much to keep my spirits high through any trying times during the writing and editing process. Sophie Purdy kindly read the first rough draft of the manuscript and identified the more egregious of the longueurs, arguing forcefully for their excision or distillation.

  In Henry Ferris I am fortunate to have one of the most robust and scrupulous editors in New York, and he managed, with just the right mix of courtesy and firmness, the delicate business of trimming and adjusting the manuscript that I first submitted. His enduring assistant, associate editor Peter Hubbard, helped also with the task of acquiring illustrations and maps: between the two of them the text was whipped into something infinitely more fit for publication than when it first arrived. Mary Mount also added the very considerable benefit of her perspective from London, and made countless suggestions for improving the text, almost all of which I was eventually very content to accept. The book drew great benefit from the work that these three performed upon it; my gratitude to them is boundless.

  SW

  SUGGESTED FURTHER READING

  The bulk of Joseph Needham’s personal papers are held at the University Library, Cambridge, where all have been cataloged and most are available for inspection. A few personal files remain closed at the discretion of the librarian until 2045. A small number of documents relating specifically to college business are held in the archives of Gonville and Caius College. Documents relating to Needham’s involvement in the Korean War are held in the library of the Imperial War Museum, London. Papers relating to the creation of the series Science and Civilisation in China are held at the Needham Research Institute, Cambridge. Cataloging was completed in July 2007. Dorothy Needham’s personal papers are held by Girton College, Cambridge.

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  ———. Making the Foreign Serve China: Managing Foreigners in the People’s Republic. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.

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  The Caian: The Annual Record of the Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 1 October 2003–30 September 2004. Cambridge: Gonville and Caius College, 2004.

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  “Holorenshaw, Henry” (pen name for Joseph Needham). The Levellers and the English Revolution. Foreword, Joseph Needham. London: Victor Gollancz, 1939.

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  ———. China: A Macro History. Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 1997.

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  Lindqvist, Cecilia. China: Empire of Living Symbols. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1989.

  Low, Morris F., ed. “Beyond Joseph Needham: Science, Technology, and Medicine in East and Southeast Asia.” Osiris, vol. 13. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

  Lu, Gwei-djen, and Joseph Needham. Celestial Lancets: A History and Rationale of Acupuncture and Moxa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

  Lyons, Thomas P. China Maritime Customs and China’s Trade Statistics 1859–1948. Trumansburg, NY: Willow Creek, 2003.

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  Mayor, Adrienne. Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World. Woodstock, NY: Overlook, 2003.

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  Mendelssohn, Kurt. In China Now. London: Paul Hamlyn, 1969.

  Miyazaki, Ichisada. China’s Examination Hell: The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China. New York: Weatherhill, 1976.

  Mukherjee, Sushil Kumar, and Amitabha Ghosh, eds. The Life and Works of Joseph Needham. Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1997.

  Needham, Joseph. Time: The Refreshing River (Essays and Addresses, 1932–1942). London: George Allen and Unwin, 1943.

  ———. Science and Civilisation in China. 24 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954–2004.

  ———. The Grand Titration: Science and Society in East and West. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1969.

  ———. Within the Four Seas: The Dialogue of East and West. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1969.

  Needham, Joseph, and Dorothy Needham, eds. Science Outpost: Papers of the Sino-British Science Co-Operation Office (British Council Scientific Office in China) 1942–1946. London: Pilot, 1948.

  Owen, Bernie, and Raynor Shaw. Hong Kong Landscapes: Along the MacLehose Trail. Hong Kong: Geotrails Society, 2001.

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  ———. Chungking Diary. London: William Heinemann, 1945.

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  Powell, Timothy E., and Peter Harper, eds. Catalogues and Supplementary Catalogues of the Papers and Correspondence of Joseph Needham CH FRS (1900–1995). Bath: National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, University of Bath, 1999.

  Preston, Diana. The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China’s War on Foreigners That Shook the World in the Summer of 1900. New York: Walker, 2000.

  Price, Ruth. The Lives of Agnes Smedley. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
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  Raverat, Gwen. Period Piece: The Cambridge Childhood of Darwin’s Granddaughter. London: Faber and Faber, 1952.

  Redding, Gordon. The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1990.

  Ronan, Colin A. The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China: An Abridgement of Joseph Needham’s Original Text. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

  The Seige of the Peking Embassy, 1900: Sir Claude MacDonald’s Report on the Boxer Rebellion. Uncovered Editions series. Tim Coates, series ed. London: Stationery Office, 2000.

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  ———. The Other Side of the River: Red China Today. London: Victor Gollancz, 1963.

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  ———. The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution, 1895–1980. London: Faber and Faber, 1981.

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  ———. The Chan’s Great Continent: China in Western Minds. New York: Norton, 1998.

  ———. Treason by the Book. New York: Viking, 2001.

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