Астроном, который успокоил повальное увлечение НЛО в Китае

> When sightings of celestial phenomena surged in China in the ’80s, researcher Liu Yan’s letters helped keep people’s feet on the ground.

> The 2021 movie “Journey to the West,” in which a journalist travels to a remote Chinese village to find evidence of aliens, brought back for many people memories of China’s UFO craze in the 1980s. Back then, the Purple Mountain Observatory would receive huge stacks of letters every time there was a strange celestial event, and Liu was generally the person tasked with replying. He would read and analyze every reported sighting, and he estimates he wrote at least 2,000 letters in response.

> Liu turns 80 this year and has been retired for almost two decades, but he’s just as serious about his astronomy work. In a recent interview in the observatory’s conference room, he pulled from his backpack several binders stuffed with letters and other materials on celestial events across the country. He also maintains a keen memory for dates and details when it comes to specific UFO sightings.