Einstein exibit cancelled in China for merging philosophy/history with it
June 7, 2011 at 5:42 pm
From the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13679688
The Historical Museum of Bern, Switzerland, has cancelled plans to put on an exhibition about the scientist Albert Einstein in Shanghai, China.
Shanghai's Science and Technology Museum had suggested merging the Einstein show with a display about the Chinese philosopher, Confucius.
A Hong Kong newspaper said Beijing had earlier asked for all references to World War II to be removed from the exhibit.
Neither the Shanghai nor the Bern museums have commented officially. (more at article)
China views science and history a bit differently than the West. Bern previously added a display about the Holocoust (why does the speller hit that?) and the Nazi Party when in Hong Kong, miffing the Communist government. So the Shanghai museum wanted to add Confucius, to balance the exhibit with a message of peace over the message of politics and war Bern wanted to add. Bern said they would rather cancel the entire exhibit than remove the information. China's short answer is they don't see why history and religion should be mixed up in a science display about Einstein, who received word of his Nobel Prize in Shanghai in 1931.
"Be ye not lost amongst Precept of Order." - Book of Uterus, 1:5, "Principia Discordia, or How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her."
