Yuan Longping was a Chinese agronomist and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering known for developing the first hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s, part of the large changes in agriculture happening during that period. For his contributions, Yuan is known as the “Father of Hybrid Rice”. Hybrid rice has since been grown in dozens of countries in Africa, America, and Asia—boosting food security and providing a robust food source in areas with a high risk of famine.
Yuan was both professionally and personally interested on rice production. He spent a majority of his time in the field, rather than staying confined in a lab or publishing papers. As such, he played a large role in Chinese agriculture by mentoring and leading others in the field, which helped foster future achievements in Chinese agriculture. In 1979, his technique for hybrid rice was introduced into the United States, making it the first case of intellectual property rights transfer in the history of the People’s Republic of China.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 1991 statistics show that 20 percent of the world’s rice output came from 10 percent of the world’s rice fields that grow hybrid rice. Yuan advocated for sharing the success of his breakthroughs with other nations. He and his team donated crucial rice strains to the International Rice Research Institute in 1980. These donated strains were used to create hybrid rice strains that could sustain and grow in tropical countries to help their food supply chains. In addition to donating important rice strains, Yuan and his team taught farmers in other countries to grow and cultivate hybrid rice.
On March 10, 2021, Yuan Longping collapsed at his hybrid rice research base in Sanya. On April 7, he was transferred to Changsha, Hunan Province for treatment. At 13:07 on May 22, Yuan Longping died of multiple organ failure at Xiangya Hospital of Central South University Considered a national hero, tens of thousands of people sent flowers to the funeral home.
:07: to a real one
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Definitely. The Twilight Zone was groundbreaking on a ton of different fronts, not the least of which tackling racism. I don’t remember the episode well enough to say how good of a job it did (and I’m almost afraid to go back to find it to be cringe) but there was an episode with George Takei exploring post WWII racism wrt a Japanese man. To my knowledge, there was nothing else like that on TV at the time. I think there was some issue even with that episode airing because of it, I’ll have to go read up about it.
(Here’s the wikipedia article, but I haven’t read it yet, right now I’m just pulling from memory.)
I do remember it being pretty anti-communist, but what the fuck wasn’t back then. For the record, I’m not that old to have watched it when it aired, but I did watch 'em all as a teen in the 90’s and early 00’s. But even if it was anti-communist, it still feels like it served to spotlight some capitalist contradictions, and despite itself, still had what I would say are pro-communist ideals. Obviously it varied from episode to episode. But yeah… Twilight Zone rocked.
I remember I watched the episode about the SS officer going back to the concentration camp he worked at and being driven to insanity by the ghosts of his victims and thought that seemed pretty cool. I also remember the episode about the aliens invading, but all they do is watch as the town they visit starts to kill each other out of suspicions that there’s an imposter among them. I watched it in class and my teacher said the aliens were an obvious metaphor for communists, and I almost said that it seemed like it was opposed to mccarthyism mostly, but felt like that might be a bad idea.
Yep, I remember those too now that you mention them. I think the Simpsons did a version of the ones about aliens invading and the town killing each other. Or wait, is that the same one as the bomb shelter without “enough room”? Gah. Memory. But yeah, that shit about it being a metaphor for communists I suspect is a lot more on your teacher than it is on TZ.
I also remember another one where there’s a tiny alien UFO terrorizing an old woman who is desperately trying to save herself from it. In the end, turns out the tiny UFO was actually the United States. Or I hope it was - it was earthlings at least, but I think the ending twist was an American flag rising up or on the terrorizing ship. I’m sure it was more a commentary on bad first impressions and fear of the other than anything against the US, but it still wasn’t exactly a common trope at the time that the ones you thought were the bad guys were actually American!
I mentioned that one under spoilers up above, that one was actually Rod Sterling’s favorite episode (along with the one about the guy who has all the time he wants to read, but a broken pair of glasses.)
