Doctoral Dissertation Research: "Discovering China: Science, Imperialism, and Nationalism in the Chinese Frontier"

本论文的研究改进基金由科学、技术和社会计划资助，将用于探索1911年至1951年期间中外科学家的智力工作和各种探险。研究将集中在研究中国西北和西南边疆的地质学、古生物学、人类学和考古学的科学家。这片辽阔的空间包括新疆、蒙古、甘肃、青海、西藏、四川和云南，历史上不仅是地理上的边界地带，也是跨文化相遇的地带。20世纪上半叶中外科学家在边疆地区的研究发现了史前文化和著名的北京人，并在边疆地区的民族学研究中开创了非汉族的先河。这个项目考察了对人类文明、个人对智力认同的追求和国家利益的担忧如何促使这些科学家探索中国的前沿；以及在某些智力网络中，科学家之间如何交换和分享思想。归根结底，它突显了参与全球科学界与中国科学家经历的进口知识体系本土化愿望之间的紧张关系。本课题认为，国际科学界的思想观念和争论对中国北方现代“中国”观念的形成和“中国人”的多民族观念的形成产生了重大影响。此外，它认为欧美科学帝国主义和中国中心主义并不是对立的。这个项目的方法阐明了中国民族主义和科学帝国主义的纠缠历史，并表明边疆是一个与中国的“神话”进行辩论的空间。这也为现代中国科学家的科学思想史和社会史提供了新的视角。

This dissertation research improvement grant, which was funded by way of the Science, Technology and Society program, will be used to explore the intellectual works and varied expeditions of foreign and Chinese scientists between 1911 and 1951. The research will focus on scientists who researched the geology, paleontology, anthropology, and archaeology of China's northwestern and southwestern frontiers. This vast space, encompassing Xinjiang, Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai, Tibet, Sichuan, and Yunnan, had historically not only been a geographical border zone, but also a zone of cross-cultural encounters. The research of foreign and Chinese scientists in the frontier in the first half of the 20th century resulted in the discovery of prehistoric cultures and the famous Peking Man, as well as in pioneering work in ethnological studies on the frontier regions non-Han people. This project examines how concerns with human civilization, the individual search for intellectual identity, and national interests motivated these scientists to explore the Chinese frontier; and how ideas were exchanged and shared among scientists in certain intellectual networks. Ultimately, it highlights the tensions between participating in global scientific community and the desire for the indigenization of imported knowledge systems experienced by Chinese scientists. This project argues that ideas and debates in the international scientific arena had a great impact on the formation of the concept of modern "China" as originated in North China and the notion of "Chinese" as a multi-ethnic group. Moreover, it contends that Euro-American scientific imperialism and Sinocentrism were not antagonistic. The approach of this project elucidates the entangled histories of Chinese nationalism and scientific imperialism, and demonstrates that the frontier is a space for contestation against the "myth" of China. It also sheds new light on the intellectual history of science and social history of scientists of modern China.