Steve Long Director of Global Film Exhibition in discussion with the Director 谦 程 about his film 'I Went to an Alien Planet'
What makes Mr. Zhang Xiangqian's alien encounter story so intriguing and challenging to our understanding of physics?
There are very few cases of Zhang's extraterrestrial encounters in China, with a total of about three. However, unlike other encounters, Zhang was instilled with extraterrestrial knowledge by aliens. Since returning to Earth in 1985, Zhang has been self-learning physics and mathematics, hoping to translate extraterrestrial knowledge into the language of Earth. If everything Zhang said is true, it would have a tremendous impact on the entire physics and philosophy community on Earth, Zhang advocates that there is only a three-dimensional world, and time does not exist. It is just a language used by humans to describe it. He perfected Einstein's theory of relativity, claiming that changing electromagnetic fields can generate gravitational fields.
How should we balance skepticism and openness when confronted with claims like alien abduction and knowledge transmission?
Before we went to the filming site, our accompanying photographer and I had always held a skeptical attitude. However, when we saw Zhang, I found that things were not as simple as we imagined. Firstly, he had written letters to various physics research institutes in China since 1990, which means that Zhang had persisted for thirty years to prove that he was truly taken away by aliens.
Media and netizens had visited him before and did not find any logical problems with his logic. For us ordinary people, I think we should always have a skeptical and objective attitude towards everything. I did not say that this matter is completely real, but we should not completely deny a person's persistence of more than 30 years.
What has been the scientific community's reaction to Mr. Zhang's letters and theories about extraterrestrial knowledge?
This question has already been answered by Zhang once in the documentary. The mainstream scientific community has not taken it seriously, or even underestimated him, thinking that he is crazy. Only physics Ph.D. or graduate students have had private communication and contact with Zhang, but they are all personal direct communication, which the scientific community will not recognize.
How might cultural and social perspectives influence our interpretation of extraordinary claims like Mr. Zhang's?
For this question, domestic media platforms are a good answer. In China, many people believe that Zhang's experience is real. Zhang has many fans and netizens, but there are also many opposing voices. These two voices have always been in opposition on the Internet, but from my understanding, most people believe that Zhang's experience is real.
How does the documentary about Mr. Zhang navigate the line between storytelling and journalistic integrity?
Regarding this documentary, I did not deliberately guide the audience's attention. I maintained an objective and neutral attitude when filming and producing it, and completely entrusted the matter to attention for evaluation.
What role do viewers play in making sense of documentaries that present unverified, extraordinary claims?
I think one should not be an observer, but rather a thinker. The audience should think about whether this matter is true or false because everyone's position is different, but many thoughts converge into answers that are often true. Considering Mr. Zhang's claim of formulating a Unified Field Theory, what is its significance in physics, and could it realistically come from such an unexpected source? Unified field theory is very important for Zhang. He spent thirty years studying this formula. According to Zhang himself, if this theory is proven, we can fully understand and produce extraterrestrial technology. Humans will no longer be destroyed by material wealth, and they will turn to enjoying spiritual wealth. Humans will be liberated. I don't think I can answer the question about the source. After watching the documentary, the audience may know if this is true.
How does Mr. Zhang's self-education in math and physics reflect the potential for learning outside traditional academic paths?
For example, in China, it is necessary to learn English from the third grade of elementary school to university for more than ten years, but it is still not possible to understand English and have fluent conversations in English. Physics and mathematics are even more so. Zhang's studies are all advanced mathematics and physics. If he only has four years of university, it is difficult to fully understand this knowledge, let alone Zhang's level of elementary school graduation, He learned these things entirely on his own, perhaps with the help of aliens.
In what ways does Mr. Zhang’s story merge science with science fiction, and what insights does this offer?
There is a very interesting conversation about this point. In the documentary, Zhang gave us a very interesting example, a time and space refrigerator. The temperature outside the refrigerator is the same as inside, but the food inside the refrigerator has passed for a day. After a year, the food is taken out and left in the refrigerator for a day, so it has not expired and can still be consumed. This short story is still very interesting.
How do personal stories like Mr. Zhang's influence public perceptions of alien life and our collective hopes and fears about extraterrestrial contact?
As for Zhang's experience, it is not an isolated case. As far as I know, there are many cases of extraterrestrial contact around the world where the parties involved are very similar to Zhang's experiences. Therefore, Zhang's incident can be used as a reference for contact events. There is an ancient Chinese saying: trust what you have, trust what you don't have. When facing these events, we would rather believe that it is true and take extra precautions than believe that it is false, just like there is nothing.
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