Abstract
Xuesen Qian (Hsue-Shen Tsien), the father of China's rocketry and space technology, was born in Shanghai on Dec. 11th, 1911. He graduated from the Shanghai Jiaotong University in 1934 and received a degree in mechanical engineering there. He then spent an internship at Nanchang Air Force Base. Qian left China for the United States in 1935 to study mechanical engineering and earned Master's Degree of Science from MIT one year later. Then he went to the California Institute of Technology to pursue his studies in aeronautical engineering and aerodynamics under the supervision of Theodore von K\'{a}rm\'{a}n. Qian obtained his doctorate in 1939. When remaining to stay in the United States, he was promoted to the positions of lecturer and professor. As soon as he decided to come back China, he was persecuted by the US Administration during the McCarthy era in 1950s and then led five years' life without freedom in California. It was not until 1955 for him and his family to return to the motherland. Qian finally founded China's rocketry and space industry in such a country technologically still in the stage of agricultural society. Qian established the Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1956 and held the post of director. Then he founded the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and was elected as the first president in 1957. In the same year he started publishing the first mechanics journal Acta Mechanica Sinica (Chinese series) as the first editor-in-chief. He set it as a journal of engineering science and determined its aims and scope. Up to now, 41 volumes of Acta Mechanica Sinica (Chinese series) have been published. In 1985, Acta Mechanica Sinica (English series) came out. Since then, 25 volumes of Acta Mechanica Sinica (English series) have been published. Qian made remarkable contributions in promoting the development of mechanics in China. In order to commemorate Xuesen Qian, we republish the foreword ``Our Goals'' in the initial issue of Acta Mechanica Sinica (Chinese series).
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