Literary Master 1983

Chapter 384 He had already "turned red" long ago.
Yu Qie then realized that Watson had gone far down the path of "intelligence theory" which was suspected of being racially discriminatory.

Watson has expressed his prejudice against Black people on multiple occasions over the past two months. In an interview with The New York Times, he said, "Africans have lower IQs, and the country's education policies always assume that Black people have the same intelligence as other races, which is not actually the case... That's why our education is such a failure!"

In The Times, he published an article stating that "Black people seem to lack genetic mutations from late Homo sapiens, and from this perspective, they are not fully evolved."

Although the so-called "debate of the century" has not yet begun, Watson has been tirelessly engaging in verbal battles with people.

Clark, who publicly challenged him, retorted: "We haven't conducted large-scale human genetic testing yet; your accusation is completely unfounded."

Watson retorted, "You're right about everything, but why haven't any Black nations created a glorious civilization? If you previously attributed it to colonial rule, then now that the world has been largely at peace for nearly half a century, why is it still a land without hope?"

“East Asia, and even Southeast Asia, where conditions are much worse than theirs, have already developed.”

Clark said, "This is because of the invisible colonization by the West. We are still persecuting Black people there."

“No, you’re talking nonsense again! I’ve had enough of your hypocrisy! The real issue is intelligence!” Watson said. “China was blockaded by two major camps for decades, yet they turned around and supported sub-Saharan Africa. They have their own nuclear weapons and industry. How do you explain that?”

This is indeed difficult to explain.

Clark could only say, "Because the Chinese are smart and hardworking."

Watson immediately laughed: "Every coin has two sides. So who is both stupid and lazy?"

Watson then vehemently criticized the United States' foreign aid policy: "We spend tens of billions of dollars every year to support underdeveloped regions around the world, most of which goes to sub-Saharan Africa... If this is for the continuation of humanity, it is a colossal lie! Because China has more hope than there."

American entertainment star Michael Jackson, who was black, publicly criticized Watson: "A racist executioner, a morally bankrupt white pig."

Watson, however, became even more enthusiastic: "Mike, of all the instruments you use... keyboard, piano, synthesizer, or drums, is there anything that your ancestors invented?"

"Jazz was invented by Black people."

“Oh, Mike, Mike!” Watson laughed heartily. “I have to tell you, this isn’t an invention, it’s an application. It’s like how the ancient Chinese discovered that silk could be made into clothing, they made beautiful clothes, and then some people picked out different clothes to wear, but shamelessly said they invented clothing matching—you know, that’s not even comparable.”

Watson's firepower is extremely strong.

Strangely, despite nationwide condemnation of Watson's racism, there were also those who supported him. American television stations conducted impromptu street interviews and found that many white citizens expressed their opposition to Watson verbally.

However, as long as the interview is anonymous, the results are completely reversed, with interviewees generally believing that Watson is an honest person who tells the truth.

He just likes to tell the truth.

A local New York real estate businessman even visited Watson, praising him as a shining example of white American scientists. Watson often spoke with both hands, making large hand gestures, and he liked to simplify relationships to "he and I are friends" or "he and I are enemies."

Watson called all news that was favorable to him "good news" and all news that was unfavorable to him "fake news"...

These habits were all adopted by the real estate businessman who idolized him.

Because Watson not only supports Chinese people, but he also affirms the intellectual level of white people. This hits a nerve with white people.

According to Watson's theory, while the average intelligence level of white people is relatively lower, their variance is greater, meaning they are more prone to producing geniuses. If his ideas were followed, the world would eventually become a state of East-West opposition, or a dual-power situation.

This is called intellectual regression.

All systems and technologies are external; ultimately, they all come down to human intelligence. Whoever is smarter and better able to organize will be more worthy of representing the future of humanity.

Many people think Watson's point is valid, just too sharp.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a private laboratory, and its investors were concerned about the public scrutiny Watson had generated. They wanted Watson to keep a low profile, but Watson felt he was defending the truth and always cited Yuche's *The Village Teacher* to defend himself.

"If you only had one chance to prove your level of civilization, would you prefer aliens to come and test you in sub-Saharan Africa or China?"

With Watson's boasting, "The Country Teacher" was almost becoming a token of love between him and Yu Qie.

The investor was exasperated: "Watson, you're obsessed. Yu Qie is a patriot, and naturally he will speak up for his nation."

"In fact, Yu Qie has never expressed discrimination against Africans; you have completely misinterpreted him. And you are an American scientist, so why do you always speak up for the Chinese?"

Watson famously said, "I am just looking for the truth."
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On September 4th, an international news item in the Daily News read:

Watson: The Chinese are the most intelligent race in the world.

On the same day, the Beijing Evening News published a front-page headline: "Three American pharmaceutical companies visit China for preliminary investment investigations."

On the 6th, the Daily published another article, affirming Watson's contribution to attracting investment. It also pointed out that "in the years since the reform and opening up, Watson has been the foreign expert who has received the most scholars in China, without exception."

It even says that "Watson is an old friend of the Chinese."

Yu Qie was stunned when he saw it: Well done, Watson, so you've been communist all along!

No wonder Watson came running as soon as Yu Qieyi invited him. Now, Shizuo Kakutani, Kunihiko Kodaira, and others have all left China and rarely comment, and that group of European mathematicians have returned to Europe and are largely silent.

Only Watson, in his words and actions, kept reminiscing about China; he truly seemed to have more to say.

Even the arts and literature world has been affected. One of the articles to be published in this month's *October* magazine is Shechter's "In Memory of Mr. Watson":
"After the Ping-Pong Diplomacy incident, we began to receive a large number of visiting scholars from the United States, among whom Mr. James Watson was one of the earliest renowned scientists. Today, biological sciences account for more than 60% of Western scientific papers, and biological sciences are the current trend... Under such circumstances, Mr. James Watson is a pillar of the Western biological community, and his goodwill towards China has greatly encouraged our foreign exchange work."

Yu Qie had read this article in advance at the editorial office.

Xie Xide is the wife of Cao Tianqing, whom I mentioned earlier. Her husband studies biological sciences and was Watson's colleague back then; while she herself is the mother of semiconductors in the People's Republic of China and the president of Aurora University.

Even people like this are speaking up for Watson. Watson, what else are you hiding, you old rascal?
Zhang Shouren said, "This is what we reprinted from the Science Daily; there is more information in that article."

Yu Qie obtained a report about Watson from the Science Daily and discovered that Watson had been frequently exchanging letters with Chinese scientists since 80. By 81, Watson had come to Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant to dine with his old Chinese friends. He brought his son and his wife and traveled all over Beijing!
It was the dead of winter in December, and the weather was still very cold. Watson was dressed like a retired old cadre, smiling broadly at the camera.

Behind him was this sentence:

"In science, there is no smooth road; only those who do not fear the toil of climbing the steep mountain path have a chance of reaching the glorious summit."

This quote may seem like a common inspirational saying, but it actually comes from Karl Marx's "Capital".

As an American scientist, Watson worked during the early years of McCarthyism, a period of persecution against communists across the United States, which had just ended. Scientists were all on edge, afraid of being associated with communism. It is surprising that Watson, who grew up in this environment, was able to endorse this statement after visiting China.

At this moment, Yu Qie recalled Watson's strange intelligence test questions and actually felt a kind of good intention.

Watson used a method that made him a "clown" to sacrifice his own reputation and greatly promote the potential of Chinese people in accessing higher education.

And there was his smile for the primary school students at Yenching University Affiliated Primary School, and the tearful eyes of "Grandpa Watson" after he put on the red scarf... He genuinely loved this place.

Yu Qie's attitude towards Watson also underwent a complete reversal. At first, he thought Watson was despicable and had some intention of using him, but now he felt that the person was too complicated to judge.

A few days later, Yu Qie began to face frequent farewells. His old friends left the country one after another.

Xinhua News Agency reporter Shao Qi was about to travel to Yugoslavia, and Yu Qie saw her off at the airport. She was accompanied by four Xinhua News Agency staff members and diplomatic officers.

Yu asked her, "Do you really have to go to Yugoslavia? Do you really have to go to Serbia?"

At this time, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was showing clear signs of political instability. It was generally believed that within the communist bloc, China was the less obedient member, always having its own ideas.

In fact, Yugoslavia had already taken this step long ago. Yugoslavia practiced a market economy and its economic development level was among the top in the red bloc. However, the country was extremely unevenly populated in terms of wealth and there was no clear dominant ethnic group.

After the death of its strongman Tito, Yugoslavia gradually lost control of its internal conflicts, and it could very well become a new powder keg.

Yu Qie could see it, and Shao Qi could see it too.

She and her colleagues exchanged glances and laughed: "Where isn't it dangerous? Xinhua News Agency has more than a dozen reporters in Africa. Guns don't discriminate, and the governments of small African countries don't even listen to the Americans and Soviets! Aren't they in even more danger?"

Yu Qie pulled her aside and said, "Didn't Ambassador Han help you? He later told me privately that he promised to arrange for you to come to the United States."

Shao Qi said, "Ambassador Han said so, but I still won't go! If I don't go, someone else will, and they might not even know Serbian. I'd rather go instead."

Seeing that Yu Qie still looked worried, Shao Qi said, "I went home and asked my husband, and he supports me going to Yugoslavia. A few days ago, my child, who was just over a year old, had just learned to say 'mama' and couldn't remember anything... I felt even more that I had this mission, and it's better to go sooner rather than later."

Seeing this, Yu Qie decided not to try to persuade her any further.

All I could do was tell Shao Qi to focus on his own well-being and to keep an eye on the novels Yu Qie would write later.

Yu Qie hinted to her, "My novels have some foresight, which might be helpful to you."

Finally, Shao Qi gave Yu Qie a photograph.

This is a photo of Yu Qie crying while leaning against the airplane window. Shao Qi took several photos, but only one was chosen as the most suitable one and published in the newspaper.

Shao Qi felt that the other photos were also very valuable.

She said, “When I was with you, I always felt that you were so heroic that you were not human. It was only at that time that I realized that you were just like us. Liu Xiangcheng of Time magazine always photographed you as a projection of some kind of religious great man. He also told me a lot about how American celebrities promote themselves. He thought you were particularly good at it... But I felt that was not you, or at least not entirely you.”

"Shao Qi, then what do you think I am?"

"I believe you are sincere."

These words touched Yu Qie to some extent. Even after Shao Qi and his group's plane had left, Yu Qie was still thinking about those words.

He can't say that his involvement in social activities was entirely pure, but as he did more of these activities, he also invested a lot of genuine emotion in them.

Afterwards, Lin Yifu also said goodbye to Yu Qie.

Lin Yifu was about to officially begin his rural survey, going up to the mountains and into the countryside. It was a tough job, because he went so deep into the countryside that people on the other side thought he was really dead.

Historically, it wasn't until the early 1990s that Lin Yifu returned to the mainstream stage of economics and frequently published economic papers.

Then he was wanted by the other side of the strait.

Watson's remarks also had some influence on Lin Yifu.

The Agricultural Development Center's large-scale research project was temporarily assigned a new task: to conduct a sample survey of the intelligence of children in rural China in order to verify whether Watson's "theory of intelligence" was true in terms of data.

"Our research, in essence, aims to prove one thing—that government investment in human resources can achieve excellent results. Professor Watson's research also serves as one of my supporting arguments, because we have hundreds of millions of children who can become skilled workers in the future."

"If we really have a reserve of hundreds of millions of industrial workers, then our education is worthwhile. Because other countries and regions with similar populations to ours, such as India and Southeast Asia, either lack a unified administrative entity or simply cannot reach the same level in terms of labor skills."

What do you think of Watson?

Yu said, “Watson is a complicated person, but he is indeed our friend.”

(End of this chapter)