The Celestial Empire
Original archive entry. The text, images and links below are kept as they were written.
Shenzhou, name of first Chinese manned spacecraft, as named by President Zemin.
Poem: the Great Ocean, two shores, two realms...
Qian Xuessen 1911 -the Great Ocean
two shores, two realms
the western shore: jade
the eastern shore: coca-cola
above: the realm that calls
on the eastern shore
you, father, birthed the rocket:
their door that clanged behind you
was not lacquered in vermilion
on the western shore
renaissance of flying dragons
you, midwife, let fly a new moon
you, bamboo too often bent
by the rage of typhoons
Feng Jishen smiles with Qian Xuessen
to see the Fifth Academy & Seventh Ministry
fly Dong Fang Hong & Shenzhou:
build from Jiuquan a silk road to the sky.
Feng Jishen - inventor of rocket, 970 AD
Qian Xuessen - father of Chinese space programme, victimized under McCarthyism and the Great Cultural Proletarian Revolution.
Fifth Academy & Seventh Ministry - code names for space department
Dong Fang Hong - 1st Chinese satellite
Shenzhou - 1st Chinese manned spacecraft
Jiuquan - China's Cape Canaveral
--Keith Gottschalk