Only a few days until the Chinese become the third nation to launch a human being into orbit after the old USSR/successor states and USA.

Shenzhu V should take off late next week.

Tielhard, I thought that, according to some earlier postings by the Tielhard, China had made it spaceward many centuries prior.

Are you changing your story, or is this a momentary attack of your early arriving dotage?

(Getting serious here...the craft is called 'Shenzhou V', rather than 'Shenzhu V'. Its meaning? 'Shen' = divine, sacred, holy; 'Zhou' = boat, craft, vessel, ark. Shall we refer to it as the 'Fifth Holy Ark of Noah's People'*?)

*It was suggested that the ancient and mythical personage of Chinese myth/history called Fuxi (Fohi) was in fact the Noah of the Bible, and hence the founder of Chinese civilization was the old ark-builder. Sorry for the stupid and esoteric reference, I had to entertain myself somehow.

Jazz,

1) You wrote "I thought that, according to some earlier postings by the Tielhard, China had made it spaceward many centuries prior"

‘The truth is out there’ waiting to be discovered when the (modern) Chinese arrive/return to the site of the tomb.

2) I am sure your spelling is correct, I note however that there are a wide variety of variations on the spelling of the word on the web. I presume ‘Shenzhou’ is rendered in PY Jazz, how would it be written and pronounced in WG?

Tielhard,

Good question. I believe the Wade-Giles equivalency would be as follows: Shen (PY) = Shen (WG); Zhou (PY) = Chou (WG). Not much of a difference, admittedly, between 'Shenzhou' and 'Shenchou', but still riveting nonetheless! In terms of pronunciation (because I can tell there's already a wave of interest on the subject), the 'shen' portion is pretty much self-evident, while the 'zhou' would be pronounced as the name 'Joe'.

You are correct in asserting that there are several different Romanization systems, and indeed some people render the Chinese in their own, unique manners. Wade-Giles was the first major Romanization system used; it was first established in the 19th centuries by of all people, a guy name Wade (later adapted and adjusted by, in another shocker, a guy named Giles!) WG lost its luster beginning in the 1950s when the People's Republic of China (PRC) established it as the official Romanization system. There were many hold-outs and diehards for the WG system, which I must say creates a great deal of annoyance for neophyte China scholars who must struggle with academic books containing one or the other Romanization. Much in the tradition of the first Chinese emperor to unify China, Qin Shi Huang Di, I think a book burning is in order, with the works of the WG adherents as the guest of honor.

Two other systems were created, by the way, in an attempt to make those little squiggly figures of Chinese literature accessible to lazy foreigners. One was called 'Gwoyeu Romatzyh', a truly awful writing system that never managed to outstrip the WG system (except in Taiwan, where they actually employ the GR for such things as street signs...bloody annoying!) Finally, the scholars at Yale created their own system. No one paid attention, but they did manage to win over the Guangdong folks with their Cantonese variant.

Anyone still awake? Just checking...

(The truth is out there...indeed!)

you guys crack me up

this china-man is interested, btw...

In the words of Gagarin "Go!" and they have gone!

Hope he gets down OK.

The new Long March is a very beautiful rocket, more graceful by far than Proton. Watching the film of the launch was a great way to wake up this morning.

Some cool trivia about this historic flight (hmm, a quiz could be made about this topic!):

The name of the astronaut: Yang Liwei (see this link)

Number of orbits: 14

Expected amount of time in space: 21 hours (we'll find out an exact figure soon enough!)

Launch site: Secret, somewhere in side the autonomous territory of Inner Mongolia, in the middle of the Gobi Desert

Annual Chinese space budget: $2 billion (compared to $15 billion for the U.S.)

It's interesting to note that Yang is not the first person of Chinese descent, or indeed the first person born in China, to be launched into space. A list of such people is included in the link above.

I went ahead and took my own advice...see the gory results here!

Congratulations to the Chinese with their succesful flight and recovery! I'll bet anyone a hundred bucks that we will survive as a species. A cool link as to such survival: http://msnbc.com/news/980683.asp?0dm=C12QT

And, everyone should read Arthur C. Clark's Rama series, for a beautiful view on the non-partisan response of such a great triumph.