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.)
Oh yeah, sorry. I'm not sure how I missed your other comment about it, but that's certainly the one. Interesting that that was a favorite of Sterling's.
The broken glasses one was exceptional as well. A classic of ironic stories. "All the time in the world." Edit: "Time enough at last"
looking it up on amazon, and the complete series is $130. i was considering buying it, but i guess not!
Yeah fuck that. Pirate it. It's not exactly obscure.
Rod Sterling doesn't need my money
Definitely. I'm sure he'd agree it would be a very shitty Twilight Zone episode where Rod comes back from the grave to demand recompense from all those moochers who didn't further enrich his estate (or rather, enrich certain players in the entertainment industry).
If it was a scam being pulled by the estate I think it could be kinda cool.
E: and I'm trying to think of what came next in mainstream tv that even approaches the twilight zone, and all i can think of is twin peaks, but theres no way tv went 30 years without any cool weird shit. i should look more into this, tv history is cool.
Reply to Edit: That's a fascinating question. Twin Peaks would have been my first thought too. Might be worth some sleuthing. Gah, Twin Peaks set a lot of molds too.
Edit: The 1970's looks like a dearth of anything decent. At least according to IMDB. I don't think Little House on the Prairie. I don't know, I'd actually be curious to hear this site's opinion on MASH*.
There's plenty of stuff that has decent horror or sci-fi elements, but I can't think of any that's just bizarre in this way. The Prisoner, maybe, but I haven't seen that and it wasn't American. X-Files was post Twin Peaks. I feel like a lot of the time shows have the weird elements, but treat it as a joke, and I think it's super important to not do that for the kind of vibe I'm looking for. Weird shit happening, but it's still scary even though you don't know what's going on. I can think of some movies, some anime, and a couple of podcasts, but not much American tv that did this, even though the Twilight Zone is one of the most successful shows of all time.
I remember MASH being pretty decent, though I only watched a little bit when I was a kid. I wonder how the anti-war stuff holds up.
E: There are some other anthologies from the same time period, most notably The Outer Limits, but I don't know if they're any good.
I honestly hadn't ever encountered The Prisoner. Maybe I should give it a watch, thanks for pointing it out. I loved X-Files as a kid long before I ever saw Twin Peaks, but I think Mulder and Skully owe much of their existence to Dale Cooper. I don't know, to me Twin Peaks just seems deeper, even though it was much shorter.
Yeah, there's a line between fiction that treats its supernatural focus seriously and fiction that doesn't. It's a higher bar to be passed if you have to take it seriously, but when it's done well, it's damn satisfying. It sounds like you're a lot more well-read/watched though.
I never watched MASH except in clips here and there. I hear it was supposed to be critical of the Korean war to some extent, but I'd expect it's far from critical of the US.
MASH was mostly just anti-war in general. The one quote I remember was something like "war isn't hell, it's worse than hell. who goes to hell?" "sinners, i think" "in hell everyone has done something to deserve their fate. in war everyone is innocent" which gives you an idea of what political stance the show takes. Still better than most american media though.
And I don't know if I'm that well read, I still haven't actually seen that much of the twilight zone, I just really like what I have. I think it's honestly kind of the lynchian feel of it that does it, his stuff feels the closest out of anything I've seen in tone. Like it's some nightmare, or occasionally a slightly nicer dream.
That is a surprisingly good bit of dialogue. I haven't seen enough of MASH to know, but if it genuinely humanizes the communist (and Asian ethnicity) "enemy" then I'd count it as a net positive.
I'd be surprised if Lynch didn't list Twilight Zone as an influence. I mean I have no idea if he does, but it's hard to imagine that it wouldn't have been, given the place, timing, and culture. There is a certain kind of sci-fi, existential dread, paranormal sort of chain though. I'd say HP Lovecraft is on it. Even Edgar Allen Poe. I think you brought up a really good question about where the links in the chain are between Twilight Zone and Twin Peaks. I'm close to passing out rn, but I bet it would make a pretty interesting tree to map out the ancestral tree of influences in the weird sci-fi/horror genre those all belong to.
Yeah, I might come back to this tomorrow, but this seems like something worth looking into more. John Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy isn't too far off either, especially In the Mouth of Madness which I know was inspired by Lovecraft. But not everything about it is Lovecraftian, it's definitely more complex than that. But I need to get to sleep, so any more thoughts will have to wait.
Well, better than the industry. :shrug-outta-hecks:
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"The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" was a famously anti-mccarthyite episode