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Wu, Chien-Shiung I 1207 therefore, the key anti-Chinese measures in the 1879 References constitution were those that allowed and encouraged Mink, Gwendolyn. 1986. Old Labor and New Immigrants state action against the Chinese. As scholars have in American Political Development. Ithaca, NY: argued, even if anti-Chinese legislation proved unen­ Cornell University Press. Sandmeyer, E. C. 1991. The Anti-Chinese Movement in forceable by the state, its passage would encourage California. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. vigilante violence putatively condoned by an unfairly Saxton, Alexander. 1995. The Indispensable Enemy. limited state. Berkeley: University of California Press. The WPC's success in electing delegates to the Shumsky, eil Larry. 1991. The Evolution of Political constitutional convention, where they achieved little Protest and the Workingmen 's Party of California. of what they championed, was mirrored on the city Columbus: Ohjo State University Press. level in San Francisco with the election of WPC candi­ date Isaac Kalloch as mayor in 1879. Despite being shot by the editor and publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle, Charles De Young, a few days before the Wu, Chien-Shiung ( 1912-1997) election, Kalloch along with oth er WPC candidates in key city positions swept the elections. The notable Chie n-Shiung Wu was one of the leading experimental exception to WPC success, which has led scholar s to physicists of the twentieth century and a prominent speculate about a vote-counting scheme hatched to leader of the Chinese American scientific community. share power, was the board of supervisors. Thus, when As the first femaleand firstAsian American president Kalloch tried to push through WPC-backed policy of the American Physical Society (APS), she fought for such as the "abatement" of Chinatown, his efforts were equal opportunities forwomen in science and promoted blocked by the board of supervisors. science and education in the United States and China. Beyond the WPC's work in advocating for a con­ Born in Shanghai, Chi na, on May 31, 1912, stitutional convention and spearheading the ratifica­ Chien-Shiung Wu (Wu Jianxiong in pinyin) grew up tion of the 1879 constitution, their key contribution in a turbulent time in modern Chinese history, but to California politics, and, as some have argued, by enjoyed a happy childhood primarily because of the extension national politics, was their virulent anti­ encouragement and support of her enlightened father, Chinese sentiment. Though this sentiment and the Wu Zhongyi, who instilled in her a pride in Chinese positions advocated by WPC leaders and rank and file culture, a love of sc ience, and a belief in herself and remained and were realized, especially after the 1882 in the equality for women. From 1923 to 1929, she Exclusion Act, the WPC itself quickly faded from attended the Suzhou Women's Normal School in both national and local politics. Scholars debate Suzhou where, inspired by stories of Marie Curie, whether this hasty exit was because of political Wu became interested in physics. In 1930, Wu entered naivete, a misguided partnership with the Greenback the National Central University in Nanjing to study Party, an agreement with the Democrats that saw physics and graduated four years later with a senior most WPC voters return to their Democratic roots, thesis on X-ray diffraction. or the accomplishment of its major goals that left no Wu worked as a teaching assistant in the Physics reason for the WPC to remain on the political stage. Department at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou for a That its major goals were anti-Chinese underscores year before taking up a research assistant position in David Roedinger's assertion that in California "labor the Academia Sinica's Institute of Physics in Shanghai and anti-Chinese movements overlapped so thor­ in 1934. In 1936, she set sail forthe United States and oughly as to be indistinguishable." enrolled in the University of Californiaat Berkeley to Jason Stohler pursue a PhD in physics. She quickly impressed all her professors, which included Ernest Lawrence, J. See also Chinese Exclusion Acts (1882-1943) Robert Oppenheimer, and Emilio Segre, with her 1208 I Wu, Chien-Shiung intellectual acumen, experimental talent, and personal the law of parity was violated in beta decay-more charm. She thrived scientifically at Berkeley. By beta particles were emitted in th e direction opposite 1940 Wu had completed two separate experiments in that of the nuclear spin than along it-which was soon nuclear physics for her PhD thesis, but, frustrated in confirmed by other scientists. her search fora tenure-track position, stayed at Law­ A surprise to most physicists , the breaking of par­ rence's lab as a researcher for two more years, working ity led to new advances in many directions in physics on nuclear fission. and eventually paved the way for the un ification of World War II brought more opportunities . In the weak and electromagnetic for ces. Yet, when the 1942, Wu married Luke Chia-Liu Yuan, a fellow Chi­ obel Prize in Physics for 1957 was announced, it nese American physicist, and together they moved to went only to Lee and Yang, not Wu, who felt happy the East Coast, he working on radar forRCA at Prince­ forhe r friends but was clearly disappointed by her ton and she teaching physics firstat Smith College and exclusion, a feeling shared by the laureates and many then at Princeton University. In 1944 Wu moved to other physicists. evertheless, Wu received, over the Columbia Univers ity in New York to develop radia­ years, just about every other award for a scientist, as tion detectors for the Manhattan Project. After the she continued to conduct influential experiments after end of the war, she stayed at Columbia as a research her parity triumph. She was promoted to full professor scientist an d gave birth in 1947 to a son, Vincent and elected a member of the National Ac ademy of Wei-chen Yuan (later a physicist). Political uncertain­ Sciences in 1958. In 1972 she was made the first ties in China following the Communist revolution in Michael I. Pupin Professor of Physi cs at Columbia l 949 led Wu and Yuan, like many others from China, and elected a member of th e American Ac ademy of to stay in the United States, and in 1954 they became Arts and Sciences. Three years later she was elected naturalized Am erican citizens. APS president and received the ational Medal of Scientifically, Wu focused, from 1946 to l 952, on Science. Then, in 1978, she received th e prestigious the problem of beta decay, an important area of nuclear Wolf Pri ze in physics from the Wolf Foundation of physics, and her experiments gained her a reputation Israel. foraccuracy and technical sophistication. Her achieve­ Taking advantage of her increasing prominence, ments he lped overcome resistance to women in Wu began to speak out on social and political issues, Columbia's Physics Department and brought her a especially on equality forwomen in science. At a sym­ promotion to associate professor with tenure in 1952. posium in 1964, forexa mple, she lamented the lack of The most celebrated experiment of Wu's career women in sc ience because of both cultural biases and started as a result of a conversation she had in the professional discrimination. Counting proudly the spring of 1956 with her Columbia colleague and fel­ achievements of women nuclear physicists such as low Chinese American physicis t Tsung-Dao Lee. At Marie Curie and Lise Meitner, she declared that "never the time, Lee and Chen Ning Yang, anoth er Chinese before have so few contributed so much under such American physicist at Princeton's Institute of trying circumstances!" (Mattfeld and Van Aken I 965: Advanced Study, were investigatin g the possibility 47). In 1975, from the platformof the APS presidency, that particles involved in weak interactions-beta she urged the federalgov ernment to increase funding decay was one example-might not follow the long­ for ed ucation and basi c research. established law of parity governing th eir spinning. During the later stage of Wu's life,her Chines e Wu dec ided to test Lee and Yang's theory by lining heritage and connections began to take on growing up the spins of the 6°Co nuclei and then detecting the importance forher . She had always maintained contact spin directions of the beta particles (electrons) th at with the scientific commun ity in Taiwan, urging the were emitted fromthe nuclei. She conducted thediffi­ ationalist government that had fled there in 1949 to cult experiment in collaboration with scientists at the carry out democratic reforms and to resist temptation National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. to make atomic bombs. Th e reopening of U.S.-China By late 1956 an d early 1957, they found that indeed relations in the early 1970s made possible her first Wu, David I 1209 return to the mainland with her husband in 1973, John F. Kennedy's executive orders lifted the ban on where they were received by Prem ier Zhou Enlai. Fol ­ unfair immigration quotas . Wu was six years old at lowing retirement from Columbia in 1981, Wu trav­ that time. And upon arrival in the United States, Wu eled more frequently to both sides of the Taiwan and his family initially settled in the town of Latham, Strait to ad vise on science policy, to promote educa­ ew York for two years where they were the only tion and science, and to receive honors and awards. A Asian American family in town. household name among Chinese all over the world, After graduating from high school, Wu went to Wu, as the "Chinese Curie,"became a role model for Stanford University as an undergraduat e and earneda many Chinese students, especially girls and women, Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1977.

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