ABSTRACT
In the November 1976 issue of the newly established Journal of Applied Mathematics (Yingyong shuxue xuebao), Wu Wen-Tsun, one of its editors, published an article entitled ‘The Cultural Revolution opened up a broad future for mathematical research’. It was Wu’s celebration of his intellectual transformation since the start of the Cultural Revolution (CR) in 1966, and his manifesto for the future. After invoking the current politically correct slogans and briefly summarizing China’s achievements in applied mathematical disciplines, Wu turned to his personal experience. In order to highlight the depth of his transformation, he started with a thorough self-criticism:
I am an intellectual coming from the old society, I studied abroad, and I carried over to the new society the modes of study and research I had learnt in the old society and abroad. In the past, I always aimed my effort at creating some new theory, establishing some new school, and my mode of research exhibited the three separations [from politics, from the masses and from practice] and was academic.
