THE FLOWER THAT BLOOMS

       
     “The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.” 
This quote,  attributed  to a Chinese Emperor’s words of wisdom to a young girl may be familiar, as it appeared in the 1998 Walt Disney film, “Mulan” and alluded, in the film, to the plum tree blossom as an example.
Stated another way, “This flower blooms in adversity,” it becomes personalized, and can be a powerful expression of self assurance in the face of various attacks of disappointment, rejection, anger, failure, or soured disposition of any sort that is encompassed by the full range of human emotions.
In  a brief moment following a technical discussion in his office in the late 1950’s, General Dynamics colleague L.T. Cheung withdrew a Christmas  card from his desk drawer and showed it to me. It was from a close friend of his, then residing in China. His name was Dr. Qian Xuesen, known to his friends in America as simply, “Dr. Tsien.”  Its short message must have affected me profoundly, for I remember the event to this day, nearly 60 years later. It read simply: “This flower blooms in adversity.”
Dr. Tsien lived in the United states with his wife and two children during the 1940’s and early 1950’s. He met and married his opera singer wife here and his two children were born in the United States. He studied  and obtained his degrees at MIT.  An associate  of von Karman, he rose to be a prominent  rocket scientist in the United States. He taught at MIT and Cal Tech. and came to be highly respected and admired. With his colleagues at  Cal Tech, he founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where key propulsion technologies and rocket technology would  be advanced. They included Jet Assisted Takeoff  (JATO) for aircraft and  the WAC Corporal high altitude rocket, which  followed technology developed by the Germans in their V-2 rocket (The German rockets previously were developed  with technology introduced by American rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard.).
In 1950, with the onset of the Second Red Scare, Dr. Tsien was accused of having communist sympathies. His clearance was revoked and he was interred on Terminal Island, while for five years he and his cohorts in academia, and indeed some members of the  Federal Government, fought for his vindication. Discouraged, in 1955 he was allowed to return to China. Rumors were of an exchange taking place for American pilots captured in the Korean war and held by the Chinese.
In China Dr. Tsien founded the Chinese missiles and rockets industry, which has grown over the years to a strong Chinese presence in space, made possible by several versions versions of the Long March space launch rocket. He also managed the development of the Dong feng ballistic missile. He was highly honored by the Chinese and lived comfortably to an old age. He died in 2009 after having experienced the satisfaction of  seeing Chinese astronauts working in space. and unmanned , China sponsored missions, to the moon. He was 97.

Quite a journey, from the day he penned “This flower blooms in adversity” so many years ago.