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Amateur ‘inventors’ try to scale the limits
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FOR most people, making aircraft, tanks or robots is the business of scientists and corporations. No one would associate these with common people, let alone farmers.
But in China, there’s a small but growing group of “crazy people” who spare no effort to tap such technological fields. Their amazing and sometimes whimsical inventions can range from submarines, helicopters and flying saucers to objects as simple as an amphibious bicycle.
The most famous is probably businessman Yang Zongfu, who made and sold several “Noah’s Arks” in 2012 right before the doomsday predicted by the ancient Mayan calendar.
More recently, two Beijing men in their 30s made a Chinese version of a Lamborghini sports car, which can reach 310 kph. It took them a year and 1.4 million yuan (US$229,500).
Such small but fanatical individuals, hellbent on creating scientific products, are derided by the professional scientific and academic community with comments such as “they are building a skyscraper on a land of sand.”
Scientists and humanists in China have different views on the phenomenon. Humanists believe there’s nothing wrong with individual freedom in exploring something that interests a person. They think that whether the helicopters can even fly is beside the point.
But scientists attack such behavior as “a waste of time, money and energy,” and some say it’s illegal. For example, the Chinese government restricts use of the sky below 600 meters. And in 2003 the government regulated the use of private helicopters in certain areas.
The same is also applied to private submarines in using territorial waters. And the builders of any copycat race cars cannot legally obtain license plates to operate them.
Despite such scoffing, these “civilian inventors” are passionate in fulfilling their dreams. More than 20 Chinese peasants are busy making airplanes. The efforts and wisdom of these people are not recognized by the mainstream, which on the whole considers what they are doing useless and of no benefit to the country or the individuals.
“Peasant is our entity, but it doesn’t mean that we are the people who only know how to plough,” said Xu Bin from Zhejiang Province, who made the first private helicopter in his region. “Under the rapid development of China’s reform policy, I, like many Chinese farmers, feel fed up with the boring agricultural lifestyle. Sometimes I think we have been abandoned by the fast-paced society.”
“I think it is not appropriate to call these people ‘crazy’,” said Feng Yalan, a Shanghai psychologist. “Maybe they are spending all their savings to realize their dreams. Please don’t stand on a sensible angle to mock their passion. You are not him, how could you understand how important it is to realize one’s dream, or to be exact, a once-in-a-lifetime dream?”
He Zuoxie, a famous Chinese academician, said that “if we lived 200 years ago, then we would have encouraged farmers to make helicopters, but time is different, and such repeated exploration is doomed to fail.”
Farmer Xu disagrees, naturally.
“Creativity is born in the process of persistence and practice,” he says. “If you don’t do it, then you will never achieve it. Like the helicopter expert who gave me support and advice said, although he was not so much in favor of the farmers making aircraft, he recognized that the scientific force from the farmers might break stereotyped concepts and make progress.”
Zhang Dousan, a farmer from southern China’s Guangdong Province, made a helicopter and created quite a stir at the Zhuhai Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in 2000.
“Many experts came to see my helicopter and it was even borrowed by an aviation research institute in Beijing,” Zhang said.
Zhang, like many Chinese peasants, did not go beyond primary school.
That aroused questions from the professionals who noted that an advanced education is needed to build highly technical products.
“But do they know how many years I have spent in researching the specified area?” asked Zhang. “Although I only finished primary school education, my ability is not just equal to a pupil.”
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