“His appearance excited the crowd. The shouting of slogans, which had slackened a bit, now picked up with renewed force and drowned out everything else like a resurgent tide.
“After waiting patiently for the noise to subside, one of the male Red Guards turned to the victim. ‘Ye Zhetai, you are an expert in mechanics. You should see how strong the great unified force you’re resisting is. To remain so stubborn will lead only to your death! Today, we will continue the agenda from the last time. There’s no need to waste words. Answer the following question without your typical deceit: Between the years of 1962 and 1965, did you not decide on your own to add relativity to the intro physics course?’
“ ‘Relativity is part of the fundamental theories of physics,’ Ye answered. ‘How can a basic survey course not teach it?’
“ ‘You lie!’ a female Red Guard by his side shouted. ‘Einstein is a reactionary academic authority. He would serve any master who dangled money in front of him. He even went to the American Imperialists and helped them build the atom bomb! To develop a revolutionary science, we must overthrow the black banner of capitalism represented by the theory of relativity!’
“Ye remained silent.”
—Cixin Liu (as translated by Ken Liu), The Three-Body Problem
