CWU Reviews Role of Women Scientists in China's Nuclear Cause

A symposium on the contributions made by women scientists in China's nuclear cause

China successfully exploded its first hydrogen bomb on June 17, 1967, and this year marks its 55th anniversary. China Women's University & ACWF Executive Leadership Academy (CWU) launched a project in 2021 to hold face-to-face interviews with women scientists Wang Peixuan, Fu Ying, Zhu Zhimei and Yu Qiyi, with an average age of 85, who have dedicated themselves to China's nuclear cause.

The women scientists looked back on how they undertook the work under arduous conditions around the 1960s, overcame the difficulties in their work and life, devoted their heart and soul to the cause and fulfilled the glorious mission entrusted by the country.

A poster of the four scientists

The organizers of the year-long project produced 50 hours of audio materials with 500,000 Chinese characters and wrote their stories into a publication with 290,000 words from the interviews.

CWU teachers and students who participated in the project said they were deeply inspired by the scientists' hard work, selfless devotion, strong patriotism and sense of mission in the early history of China's endeavor to have its own hydrogen bombs in the second half of the last century.

Four interviewees and other women sci-tech workers in the nuclear cause have set an example for women from all walks of life in the new era, especially for college students.

Photos Supplied by China Women's University & ACWF Executive Leadership Academy

(Source: China Women's University & ACWF Executive Leadership Academy/Translated and edited by Women of China)