1IntroductionOn December 17, 1922, Albert Einstein wrote from Kyoto, Japan to Xia Yuanli, a physics professor at Peking University.Pleased by Xia’s letter, Einstein nonetheless informed Xia that he might not be able to come to Beijing, for which he could not help lamenting,“Beijing is so close and yet I cannot fulfill my long-cherished wish [to visit it], you can imagine how frustrated I am.”①Einstein had planned to visit Peking University and lecture for a few weeks at the beginning of 1923.Unfortunately, the planned trip was cancelled due to a series of misunderstanding.Despite the cancellation, however, the expected visit by Einstein triggered a wave of “relativity craze” among the educated Chinese public.
展开▼
