Transnationalism and Transformation of Science in Modern East Asia

Abstract

From the nineteenth century onwards, various forms of nationalisms shaped the development of science and technology in many parts of the world. The connection between nationalism and modernization in the construction of science and technology in twentieth-century East Asia has been fairly noted by many scholars. Recent scholarship in the history of science, however, began to problematize the excessive focus on nation-state as a category of analysis and reveal the transnational character of science even during the height of Cold War-imposed isolation. This panel brings together three early career scholars who examine the history of science in modern China (Jiang), Japan (Wijeyeratne), and Hong Kong (Luk) from a transnational point of view. Jiang examines the material epistemology in China’s genetic research. Wijeyeratne documents the post-WWII development of rocketry program in Japan. Luk explores the transnational research networks created by two notable Chinese physiologists and their legacy in Hong Kong. Although the panelists’ specialties cover different topics and regions, what unites the three papers is their common focus on the connection between transnational flow of knowledge (Luk), instruments and objects (Jiang), and ideologies (Wijeyeratne), and the transformation of science in changing cultural and political contexts over the course of the twentieth century. From China to Japan, and from experimental biology to rocket science, this panel presents some of the latest research in the history of science in modern East Asia.