Building of "New China's Astronomy" and the Establishment of New Historiography of Traditional Astronomy in the 1950s and 1960s: Am insight from the oral history sources
2015
Abstract
This paper focuses on what new information the interview with Chen Jiujin (born 1939, historian of Chinese astronomy) that I conducted in Beijing in April 2014 and the interviews with Wang Shouguan (born 1923, pioneer of radio astronomy in China) conducted earlier by my colleague Chu Shanshan from the Institute for History of Natural Sciences in Beijing bring for understanding ideological and political influences on the historiography of Chinese astronomy. I also mention methodological problems of oral history in the Chinese environment, especially when the research is conducted by a foreigner.