Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

120 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
sources of popular support for human space exploration that belong not just to
the predominant strand described by Suisheng Zhao as “pragmatic nationalism”
but also into the other strands of nationalism with currency in China today,
including liberal nationalism, anti-traditionalism, and even nativism.
If true, it will be no wonder if many thousands of Chinese tourists will
soon be sitting on foating bleachers out in the South China Sea watching
rockets lift of from their new Chinese Disneyland, perhaps taking Yang Liwei
or his fellow “taikonauts” to humankind’s next landing on the Moon, as NaSa
administrator Michael Grifn has warned.
Unfortunately, many Western observers—especially in the defense intelligence
community—persist in understanding Chinese developments from
without instead of probing deeper into China, as today’s top scholars on the
modern Chinese identity would have them, from within the remarkably rich and
infnitely complicated character of Chinese society—past, present, and future.
pOStSCrIpt
august 6, 2008: “Spaceman Yang to launch torch relay in Beijing,” by Chen
Jia, China Daily, accessed on September 11, 2008, at http://www.chinadaily.com.
cn/olympics/torch/2008-08/06/content_6907463.htm.
“Yang Liwei,China’s frst astronaut,will run the opening leg of the Olympic torch
relay in Beijing, which starts at 8 am today at the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden
City. Basketball star Yao Ming, who some media said would run the frst leg, will
be the ninth torchbearer.“Yang helped China realize its dream to travel in space,
and now we are living another dream of hosting the Games,” Sun Xuecai, deputy
director of the Beijing sports administration, told a news conference tuesday.
September 9, 2008: “the New red Scare—avoiding a Space race With
China,” by Loretta hidalgo Whitesides, in Wired, accessed on September 11,
2008, at http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/the-new-red-sca.html.
“In the wake of the pageantry and sheer enormity of the Beijing Olympics,
China is getting ready for its next beautifully scripted display of power and
prestige: Its frst space walk will be televised live by mid-October. the mission
will carry three crew members, two of whom will move into the newly created
eVa (extra-vehicular activity) airlock at the top of the Soyuz-like vehicle. One
of these crew members will wear a newly designed Chinese eVa space suit, of
which the country is very proud.”
Steve J. Dick and roger D. Launius, pp. 103-117. a slightly diferent version of my essay appeared
as “Great hero Yang,” in Air/Space Smithsonian(Feb/March 2007), and can be accessed at http://
www.airspacemag.com/issues/2007/february-march/great_hero_yang.php?page=1.