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Nowadays, if anyone claims that he is "fighting to liberate the human race", he will be dismissed as an eccentric old fogy. This sentiment, once the catchphrase of Chinese Communists, is not even to be found in the official vocabulary of today. Yet, it was the ideal an American woman pursued almost throughout her life. Joan Hinton, a nuclear physicist who once worked for the Manhattan Project that led to the birth of the atom bomb in the 1940s, died on June 8 in the capital at the ripe old age of 89. Last Friday, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Mechanization Sciences held a memorial in honor of Hinton, during the course of which many Chinese leaders sent messages to mourn her passing. Hinton came to China in 1948 and, since then, devoted herself to the development of the nation's dairy industry as well as its farm machinery sector along with husband Erwin Engst, a dairy-farming expert. Both remained staunch supporters of the Chinese Communist revolution. When Engst died in 2003, Hinton insisted that the phrase - "has fought for the liberation of the human race" - be included in the official obituary prepared by the Ministry of Machinery Industry, Engst's former employer. Her hidebound attitude may have seemed odd today, but her ideals, as well as the contributions she and her husband made towards China's development, has inspired many. Some commentators praised her as a worthy contrast to some Chinese officials who have lagged in their duty to serve the public. | 
