Qian Xuesen’s cousin Qian Xueju took the same path as Qian Xuesen. After the founding of New China, Qian Xuesen found every way to return to China, but why did Qian Xuesen not come back? Instead, he joined the United States What about nationality?
Qian Xueju is three years younger than Qian Xuesen. Qian Xueju’s father is Qian Zefu, while Qian Xuesen’s father is Qian Junfu. Qian Junfu and Qian Zefu are brothers, and Qian Junfu is the younger brother. Their father's name is Qian Chengci.
Qian Zefu has a son and a daughter, Qian Xueju and Qian Xueren, while Qian Junfu only has one son, Qian Xuesen.
Qian Zefu and Qian Junfu’s father, Qian Chengci, was a silk merchant. He attached great importance to education. Qian Junfu had both political integrity and talent since he was a child. However, Qian Chengci's family soon fell into decline and he was unable to support his sons in continuing their studies. Qian Zefu soon stopped studying, and Qian Junfu also dropped out of school in 1899. Fortunately, Qian Junfu's excellence attracted the attention of Zhang, a wealthy businessman in Hangzhou. He married his daughter Zhang Lanjuan to Qian Junfu and paid for Qian Junfu to study in Japan. After returning to China, Qian Junfu engaged in education and served twice as the principal of Zhejiang Provincial No. 1 Middle School, and later as the director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education.
Because of this, Qian Junfu took on the responsibility of living and educating Qian Xueju, the son of his eldest brother Qian Zefu. In this sense, Qian Xueju and Qian Xuesen are simply brothers. Qian Junfu is also equivalent to Qian Xueju's "adoptive father".
Why do we say that Qian Xueju followed the same path as Qian Xuesen?
Qian Xueju was admitted to Zhejiang University in 1931. At that time, Qian Xueju was only 17 years old. Among all candidates, he ranked 11th. This achievement was already quite outstanding. The president of Zhejiang University at that time was a good friend of Qian Junfu, so he even called Qian Junfu to express his congratulations.
However, although Zhejiang University is very powerful, Qian Junfu hopes that Qian Xueju will study in a more powerful school. At that time, his son Qian Xuesen was admitted to Jiaotong University in 1929. Qian Junfu hoped that Qian Xueju could also go to Jiaotong University.
Jiaotong University, the predecessor of today’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University, was founded in 1896 by Sheng Xuanhuai, a famous industrialist and educator in modern China. In the 1920s and 1930s, Jiaotong University was a famous Chinese institution of higher learning well-known at home and abroad, and was known as the "MIT of the East." Therefore, Qian Junfu hopes that Qian Xueju can also develop here.
At that time, Zhejiang University took the exam first, and Jiaotong University took the exam later. Therefore, Qian Xueju rushed to Shanghai to take the exam. In the end, he was admitted to Jiaotong University with fourth place overall score. When Qian Xuesen was admitted to Jiaotong University, he was ranked third, and Qian Xueju was fourth. The results of the two brothers can be said to be between brothers.
Qian Xueju studied very hard in school. When he graduated, his average score was the first in the school.
Qian Xuesen took a year off due to illness, so he graduated only one year earlier than Qian Xueju.
After Qian Xuesen graduated, he was admitted as a publicly-sponsored international student at Tsinghua University and studied in the Department of Aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.
After Qian Xueju graduated from Jiaotong University, he chose to stay at Tsinghua University instead of taking the public examination like Qian Xuesen. The main reason why he is like this is that after all, he is supported by his uncle Qian Junfu. It would be best if he could work as soon as possible to make money and reduce his uncle's burden. That’s why he chose to stay at Tsinghua University. Of course, if you can stay at Tsinghua University, your future will be very good.
However, Qian Junfu didn't think so. He hoped that his outstanding nephew could have a better future. So he said to Qian Xueju, your brother has gone to the United States to study. If you want to make greater contributions to the country, I also hope that you can be admitted to Tsinghua University as a public student and study in the United States. As long as you study abroad in a more advanced country, you will learn more and achieve higher achievements.
Qian Xueju saw his uncle supporting him so much, so he also participated in the application process for Tsinghua University’s public students studying in the United States. He chose the same path as his brother and also entered the aerospace department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
At that time, there was another candidate named Li Yaozi who took the exam with Qian Xueju. In the end, he and Li Yaozi got the same score. However, Tsinghua University only had one place for public students studying in the United States. Therefore, after careful consideration, the school finally sent Qian Xueju to study abroad. Since Qian Xueju published two or three more papers than Li Yaozi at that time, the school sent him.
Although Li Yaozi failed to pass the exam, he did not become jealous of Qian Xueju because of this. He took the exam again in the second year, and finally he was admitted to the aerospace department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Became Qian Xueju's good friend. Later, his development was very good, and he served as a professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics of MIT, an academician of the National Academy of Engineering, and the chairman of the National Chinese Association. During the Anti-Japanese War, he helped China build China's first aircraft engine and made outstanding contributions to China's aerospace industry.
From the above narrative, we can see that the path Qian Xuequu has traveled throughout his life is simply a replica of Qian Xuesen. From Jiaotong University, to Tsinghua University, to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then to the MIT PhD degree, it is the same path. But since then, the paths taken by the two brothers have been slightly different.
Qian Xuesen was engaged in research in the fields of solid mechanics, aerodynamics, rockets and missiles from July 1938 to August 1955, and established the "Karman-Qian Xuesen formula" in the United States. Became a world-famous aerodynamicist.
Qian Xueju returned to China after graduation because of the Anti-Japanese War. Like Li Yaozi, he wants to help his motherland produce aircraft engines. After all, during the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese army had many aircraft and they were also very ferocious. If China could produce its own military aircraft, it would be better able to defeat the Japanese on the battlefield. When producing military aircraft, the most important thing is the aircraft engine. Therefore, after Qian Xueju returned to China, he went to Guizhou to serve as the chief engineer of the aircraft engine factory established by the Chinese Government Aviation Commission, and made outstanding contributions to China's manufacturing of aircraft. Later, he was awarded the rank of colonel by the Kuomintang.
However, although China finally won the victory in the Anti-Japanese War, Qian Xueju also saw the corruption and incompetence of the Nationalist government. Many officers even embezzled all the money for building airplanes, which made him very angry, but he had no choice but to do so. Therefore, he returned to the United States in 1944.
In 1949, when New China was founded, Qian Xuesen was determined to return to China and serve the motherland. At the same time, Qian Xuesen also persuaded Qian Xueju to return to China and participate in the establishment of New China. However, at that time, Qian Xueju thought that he had served as a colonel of the Kuomintang and was worried that he would be treated unfairly after returning to China, so he did not return to China, but took up American citizenship.
Qian Xuesen finally returned to China in 1955 and guided China's aerospace industry. He became the father of China's aerospace industry and made outstanding contributions to the aerospace industry of New China. He is one of the most important scientists in the history of the founding of New China.
Qian Xueju stayed in the United States and made a lot of contributions. He is an outstanding aerodynamics expert, holds multiple aviation technology patents, and has also served as an engineer for Boeing Company in the United States. Of course, compared to Qian Xuesen, his achievements are obviously much smaller.
However, because Qian Xueju stayed in the United States, the educational resources in the United States were definitely much better than those in the poor New China at that time. As a result, two of his three sons became very outstanding figures in the United States.
The eldest son Qian Yongyou has made great contributions in physiology and neurobiology, and was elected as an academician of the National Academy of Sciences. The third son, Qian Yongjian, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for his research on "green fluorescent protein".
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the United States and other Western countries were hostile to and blocked China. As a result, the two brothers Qian Xuesen and Qian Xueju had no news for many years. It was not until China and the United States established diplomatic relations that Qian Xuesen and Qian Xueju communicated.
In 1979, Qian Xueju took his wife Li Yiying and his eldest son Qian Yongjian back to China to visit his parents' graves.
Qian Xuesen was able to reunite with Qian Xueju's family after being separated for nearly 30 years. It can be said that he was filled with emotion.
In addition to scientific research, Qian Xueju also likes to paint oil paintings in his spare time and has held many art exhibitions.
In 1997, Qian Xueju died of illness at the age of 83.