Cheng Tso-hsin
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Tso-hsin Cheng (郑作新 also transcribed as Zheng Zuoxin) (18 November 1906 – 27 June 1998) was a Chinese
ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
known for his seminal work on the
birds of China This is a list of the bird species recorded in China. The avifauna of China include a total of 1425 species, of which 57 are endemic, and 3 have been introduced by humans. Of these, 108 species are globally threatened. This list's taxonomic tre ...
and mentoring a generation of researchers. Educated in the United States, he chose to stay in China after the Second World War while many of his academic colleagues moved to Taiwan. He was severely punished during the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
despite being a member of the
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
.


Biography


Early life

Cheng was born in
Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
on November 18, 1906, and grew up with an interest in the local birds. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was very young and he was taken care of mostly by his grandmother. His father was one of the few Chinese with a higher education and knew English. His father taught him to speak English. As a young boy he was weak and his father encouraged the boy to take up sports. Cheng hiked in the mountains, played tennis and even became a champion 100 m sprinter. His early naturalist interests were in the nature of culinary objects. He collected fish, wild fruit and vegetables which his grandmother cooked. He went to the high school at
Fuzhou Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...
and sought admission to the Fujian Christian University at the age of 15 which required him to undergo a special test. The English professor of biology there asked the applicants about which vegetable had the highest vitamins and he was the only one to come up with the answer as tomato. Tomatoes were then unheard of in China but Cheng had read about them, leading to his being admitted. He graduated in 1926 after seven semesters after which he wished to move to the United States.


USA

An uncle who was a doctor in Fuzhou funded Cheng's travel and he chose the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
as a cousin studied there. He studied under Peter Olas Okkelberg and received a doctorate in 1930 for his thesis on "The Germ Cell history of ''Rana cantabrigensis'' Baird". He also received a
Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...
golden Key award. While in the US he had visited the natural history museum of the university and encountered a golden pheasant specimen. He wondered why all the species in China in recent times were described by non-Chinese. He also knew of 3000-year-old classical Chinese literature which had described one-hundred bird species. He chose to return to China and rejected offers to work in the United States.


China

Returning to China in 1930 he joined the Fujian Christian University and later founded the China Zoological Society and headed the department of biology at Fuzhou. In 1938 his university moved to Shao-wu due to the threat of the Japanese invasion. He moved to the US in April 1945 to work on Chinese ornithology, examining specimens in museums and universities across America. He returned to Fuzhou in September 1946. In 1947 he was forced to move to Nanjing due to civil war between Maoists and the Kuomintang. In 1948 many university staff fled to Taiwan and Cheng also considered it. He however asked around and was told that the communist party needed scientists. He then remained and joined the Communist Party. In 1950 he moved to Beijing and became a curator of birds at the
Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, la, 1=Academia Sinica, 3=Chinese Academy; ), headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. Founded in Nanking, the academy supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ...
and founded the Peking Natural History Museum in 1951. He was the first director of the scientific publications office. He translated
Joachim Steinbacher Joachim Steinbacher (18 November 1911 – 31 July 2005) was a German ornithologist and curator at the Senckenberg-Museum in Frankfurt. He was a writer of both scientific and popular books on birds and served as editor of the avicultural periodical ...
's book on bird migration and ornithology into Chinese. From 1955 to 1957 he worked along with Soviet and East German ornithologists in expeditions and studies in southern Yunnan and northeastern China.


Cultural Revolution

In 1958 Cheng's work in China was interrupted by a campaign to eradicate sparrows (along with mice, flies and mosquitoes). Cheng was, for ecological reasons, against the campaign from the start but it was only in 1959 that he could influence a decision against the killing of sparrows. He travelled to East Germany in May 1957 and worked with
Erwin Stresemann Erwin Friedrich Theodor Stresemann (22 November 1889, in Dresden – 20 November 1972, in East Berlin) was a German naturalist and ornithologist. Stresemann was an ornithologist of extensive breadth who compiled one of the first and most compreh ...
examining specimens from the Chinese region. He was also able to meet other ornithologists like L A Portenko,
Charles Vaurie Charles Vaurie (7 July 1906, Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne, France – 13 May 1975, Reading, Pennsylvania) was a French-born American ornithologist. He was born in France, but moved to Trenton, New Jersey as a youth. He studied at New York University an ...
, and Gunther Niethammer in meetings that Stresemann called as the "Atlantic Pacific Conference". He was however not allowed to attend evening parties at Stresemann's home in West Berlin due to instructions from the Chinese embassy in East Germany. Cheng was made a foreign correspondent of the
German Ornithologists' Society The German Ornithologists' Society (german: Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft) was founded in 1850, and is one of the world's oldest existing scientific societies. Its goal is to support and further scientific ornithology in Germany on all levels. ...
through the nomination of Stresemann. Cheng returned to China with stays in Leningrad and Moscow. Returning to China he was faced by
Mao Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ...
's Cultural Revolution. Scientific work came to a halt and a slogan was that "the more knowledge you possess, the more revolutionationary you are". Cheng was declared a criminal as he had opposed Chairman Mao's campaign against sparrows. He was told that "birds are public animals of capitalism" and had to wear a badge that read "reactionary" and made to undergo an examination of his supposed ornithological training apart from being forced to sweep the corridors and clean toilets. The test was given by a committee and he was asked to identify a bird made up of parts from multiple species. After failing the "test", his salary was reduced to a bare minimum. In August 1966 he was kept in isolation in a cowshed for six months and his house was searched by
Red Guards Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...
who confiscated all his belongings including a typewriter that he valued the most. The Academia Sinica was occupied by the Red Guards from 1967 until 1968 when Mao ordered their removal. Peace returned only in the 1970s and his work on the birds of China was sent for publication after having been rejected once earlier. It was published in 1978, but dated as 1976, and he was forced to include a long quotation from Mao, who had since died. After Mao's death, Cheng was invited to an international symposium of the World Pheasant Association in November 1978. He also spent two months in England during which time he met Sir
Peter Scott Sir Peter Markham Scott, (14 September 1909 – 29 August 1989) was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer, broadcaster and sportsman. The only child of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, he took an interest in ...
and G.V.T.Matthews. He served as a professor at the
Beijing Normal University Beijing Normal University (BNU, ), colloquially known as Beishida (), is a public research university located in Beijing, China, with a strong emphasis on humanities and sciences. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China ...
and in 1987 he and his colleagues published a ''Synopsis of the Avifauna of China''. He also edited the ''Fauna Sinica'', ''Aves'' volumes from 1970 to 1980. He worked on bird conservation and worked on international collaboration for the protection of migratory species.


Personal life

Cheng met Chen Jia-jang (Lydia) while playing tennis and married her in 1942. In 1992 the couple celebrated their golden anniversary with Cheng gifting the golden key from Michigan to his wife and receiving in turn a gift of a golden pencil.


Honours

Cheng died from a heart attack in 1998. Several species have been named in his honour including
Cheng's jird Cheng's jird (''Meriones chengi'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It was named in honour of the Chinese zoologist Professor Tso-hsin Cheng. It is found only in the Turpan Depression of eastern Xinjiang, China China, offic ...
(''Meriones chengi'') Wang, 1964.
Pamela Rasmussen Pamela Cecile Rasmussen (born October 16, 1959) is an American ornithologist and expert on Asian birds. She was formerly a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and is based at the Michigan State University. She ...
named the
Sichuan bush warbler The Sichuan bush warbler (''Locustella chengi'') lives primarily in the thick brush and on tea plantations in five mountainous provinces of central China. It is a relatively small bird with a weight of 10 grams and an average length of 13 c ...
(''Locustella chengi'') discovered in 2015 after Professor Cheng.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheng, Tso-hsin 1906 births 1998 deaths 20th-century Chinese zoologists Biologists from Fujian Chinese ornithologists Biogeographers Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences People from Fuzhou University of Michigan alumni Victims of the Cultural Revolution