An exhibit on Albert Einstein, one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century, opened yesterday in Taipei, after only a few weeks of preparation following its sudden withdrawal from a scheduled showing in Beijing.
The rush to put on the exhibit here was a direct result of a change of plans by the Israeli government, which had intended to showcase the Nobel Prize-winning scientist during an exhibit that would tour China.
Those plans were changed and the exhibit withdrawn when the Beijing government demanded the removal of all references to the Einstein's Jewishness and support for the creation of a Jewish state.
"You can't deny the fact of Einstein's being a Jew. We are sorry about China's unusual response to the exhibit," Menashe Zipori, representative of Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Born at Ulm, in Wurttemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879, Einstein received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.
In 1905, at the age of 26, Einstein published papers which were to transform 20th-century scientific thought. Applying his special theory of relativity, he established the equivalence of mass and energy (E=MC2).
The exhibit, titled Man of the Century -- Albert Einstein, consists of 24 posters which reproduce photos, letters and documents pertaining to the physicist's private life, scientific achievements, and leisure activities.
Some of the posters, emphasizing the scientist's ethnicity, relate to Einstein's political activities and show how the virulent nationalism and brutality of World War I served to confirm his pacifist and internationalist convictions.
Zipori said that those rare pictures of Einstein included in the exhibit had traveled for two years in several countries in North America, South America, Australia and New Zealand.
"The exhibit is a cultural exchange, by which we can inspire young people to follow the example of Einstein," Zipori said.
The Einstein exhibit was originally to open in Beijing in late September and travel to Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities.
After the exhibit was withdrawn from China, Zipori introduced the plan to the Taiwan government, whose National Science Council (NSC) welcomed it with open arms.
Originally, Taiwan had not been on Israel's itinerary and the switch left only a few weeks to prepare for it, according to Wang Yu-lung (
The exhibit will be held in several cities in Taiwan, including Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Tainan and Hualien, before it travels to South Korea in March of next year.
At the opening ceremony yesterday in Taipei, Zipori stressed that Einstein's story would particularly inspire the younger generation in Taiwan.
"His humble birth, bad grades in school, and being from a small country did not hinder him from pursuing the understanding of the complex universe," Zipori said.
NSC Chairman Wei Che-ho (
Ovid Tzeng (
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