Shenzhou Shenzhou
Shenzhou, name of first Chinese manned spacecraft, as named by President Zemin.
Poem:
the Great Ocean, two shores, two realms...
Qian Xuessen 1911 -
the Great Ocean
two shores, two realms
the western shore: jade
the eastern shore: coca-cola
above: the realm that calls
on the eastern shore
you, father, birthed the rocket:
their door that clanged behind you
was not lacquered in vermilion
on the western shore
renaissance of flying dragons
you, midwife, let fly a new moon
you, bamboo too often bent
by the rage of typhoons
Feng Jishen smiles with Qian Xuessen
to see the Fifth Academy & Seventh Ministry
fly Dong Fang Hong & Shenzhou:
build from Jiuquan a silk road to the sky.
Feng Jishen - inventor of rocket, 970 AD
Qian Xuessen - father of Chinese space programme, victimized under McCarthyism and the Great Cultural Proletarian Revolution.
Fifth Academy & Seventh Ministry - code names for space department
Dong Fang Hong - 1st Chinese satellite
Shenzhou - 1st Chinese manned spacecraft
Jiuquan - China's Cape Canaveral
--Keith Gottschalk
