• Togo TSUKAHARA "Polycentric East Asia”: From the Perspectives of Traditional Historiography and “Science and Empires" Prof. Togo TSUKAHARA Kobe University, Japan
    • Biography

    Togo Tsukahara was born in Tokyo in 1961, and studied chemistry first at Tokyo Gakugei University 東京学芸大学. He did master's degree there, inogranic analysis of heavy elements like Lanthanoid and Actinoid. He then moved to the Netherlands with a Dutch national scholarship. There, he has got his Ph.D. at Faculty of Medicine in 1993 at Leiden University, by his thesis, "Afinity and Shinwa Ryoku: Introduction of Western Chemical Concepts in Early Nineteenth-Century Japan" (Gieben, Amstrdam. 1993). He was a Post-Doctoral fellow at the Needham Research Institute, Cambridge between 1990 and 1994. At the return of Japan, he worked for Tokai University 東海大学 until 1999, then for Kobe University 神戸大学, and appointed as a Professor of HPS and STS, at the Graduate School there in 2007.
    His fields of interest are: East Asian history of science particularly those of chemistry and geo-sciences: meteorology and historical climate reconstruction, Science and Empires, East Asian STS as an associate editor of EASTS journal; and democratization of techno-science particularly after Japan’s post-311. He is recently involved in discourse of Anthropocene.

    • Abstract

    I would discuss first about traditional historiography in East Asian STM, from diffusionist (Bassala) / conversionist (Needham) approaches. I would then put them in comparison with current STS style, like those of cultural relativism and sociology-base analysis. Also my discussion goes to the ones from more recent viewpoints of such field as Science and Empires, namely, more hybrid/circulation historiography. With regard to the general conference theme, "History of STM in Polycentric East Asia: Harmony in Diversity", I would like to consider the key concept of "Poly-Centricity" in East Asia's modernity, with special reference to its history of STM. I will compare how East Asian STM were viewed, and in respective poly-centers, how those are investigated by the framework of "Science and Empires".
    In doing so, I would also like to examine such cases of traditional Rangaku (Dutch Studies in Japan) approaches, which can be often characterized as the modernist historiography of successful Japanese nationalt techno-science policy, and that led to the triumphant Pan-Asian heroism. Such self-sufficient National (masculine his-) story of techno-science should be reconsidered from the viewpoints of different angle, and we should pay more attentions to the transition to the more contemporary and diversified works.
    Also with a bit wider perspective than those about Japan, my examination will be extended to the difference and improvement about grand-design of SCC (Sci.Civil. in China) by Needham Paradigm, and most recent and moving forward project of SCK (Science and Civilization in Korea).

  • Jianmin Li "Physicians of Korean Medicine and Their Scholarly Activities in Modern and Contemporary Korea" Prof. Namil KIM Kyung Hee University, Korea
    • Biography

    Professor Kim Namil was born in Seoul in 1962, and entered Kyung Hee University' College of Korean Medicine in 1981. After graduation, he obtained master's and doctor's degree in Korean medicine with a focus on the Korean medical history field. As a Korean medical doctor, he has been dedicated to collecting and analyzing the behaviors, doctrines, treatments and medical cases of Korean medicine scholars. Through these works, he aspires to understand the academic context of Korean medicine. In particular, Professor Kim has devoted his professional life to understand Donguibogam which was registered in the 2009 UNESCO World Heritage List, and its influence on the academic context of Korean medicine.

    • Abstract

    I'd like to introduce physicians of Korean medicine and their scholarly activities in modern and contemporary Korea. Depending on the status as a physician, we can see their activities in various fields such as palace doctor activities, education and organization of physicians of Korean medicine, publication of professional magazines and newspaper, establishment of the relevant license system, examination of efforts for scholarly achievements and social contributions. Furthermore, I will talk about those long-lasting medical families over the many generations, and those other reputed physicians for those time periods. In summary, I'll bring up the professional influences from those physicians of Korean medicine in accordance with their activities and true meaning of those actions.

  • Baichun ZHANG "Uniformity and Diversity of Agricultural Machines in East Asia" Dr. Baichun ZHANG Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
    • Biography

    Baichun ZHANG majored in mechanical engineering at Inner Mongolian Engineering College from 1979 to 1983, and majored in the history of science and technology from 1987 to 1989. In 1990, he was employed by Institute for the History of Natural Sciences (IHNS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Having studied at TechischeUniversitaet Berlin and CAS, he received PhD degree at CAS in 1999.
    He became a full professor at CAS in 2000. After that he made studies of the history of mechanics in collaboration with colleagues at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. He was appointed as a Deputy Director at the IHNS in 2005 and the Director of the IHNS in 2009.
    Since 1987, he has been conducting research on the history of science and technology, especially on the history of machines, instruments, mechanics, cross-cultural transmission of technology and scientific knowledge. Besides more than 100 articles published journals, he has been written or co-written 20 books. He jointed academic societies or organization, such as IAHS,ESHSISHEASTM, and IFToMM.In 2017, he became one of two editors-in-chief of Chinese Annals of History of Science and Technology (bi-annual journal).

    • Abstract

    China, Korea and Japan were and are neighbors separated by a strip of water. East Asia was full of cultural harmony in diversity in the time of agricultural society. There existed obvious uniformity and diversity in their scientific knowledge, technology, and economy. The typical cases include such agricultural machines as the rotary-fan winnowing machine and the square-pallet chain-pump. The main structure of the Chinese winnowing machine came into being in the first century of the Christian era. The completed winnowing machine was shared and localized by Korea and Japan. The Chinese chain-pump was constructed in the second century of the Christian era, and driven by men or oxen in Tang Dynasty. Japan and Korea not only reproduced the square-pallet chain-pump, but also developed their water-lifting devices, including the treadmill. It will be very worthwhile and productive to make comparative studies of technology and scientific knowledge between China, Korea and Japan.

  • Jianjun MEI "Some Reflections on Needham’s Intellectual Heritage" Prof. Jianjun MEI (梅建军) The Needham Research Institute, UK
    • Biography

    Jianjun Mei studied physical chemistry in metallurgical processes and the history of science and technology at the Beijing University of Iron and Steel Technology (now the University of Science and Technology Beijing, USTB) in the 1980s. He first visited Cambridge in 1994 as Li Foundation (New York) Fellow working at the Needham Research Institute, then began his PhD study in archaeology at the University of Cambridge with a scholarship generously offered by the East Asian History of Science Foundation, Hong Kong (now the Joseph Needham Fpundation for Science and Civilisation, Hong Kong). After postdoctoral work in Tokyo and Cambridge he returned to China in 2004 as a professor at the USTB and Director of the Institute of Historical Metallurgy and Materials. In recent years he has been a leading member of the team formed to write the volume on non-ferrous metallurgy for the Science and Civilisation in China series, founded by the great British sinologist and historian of science Joseph Needham (1900-1995). In January 2014, he joined the Needham Research Institute as its Director. He is now Fellow of Churchill College, University of Cambridge and Visiting Professor at the University of Science and Technology Beijing.

    • Abstract

    In this paper, I wish to reflect on Needham's intellectual heritage, its impact on understanding the world history of knowledge circulation, and its broad influence on generations of scholars. I present two case studies of paktong and iron and steel to show what Needham himself achieved and what recent progress has been made, highlighting the change of research paradigm from a patriotic or nationalistic approach to a global history approach. I argue that Needham’s work still sets a marker for ongoingresearch in many respects, and that, especially, his cross-culturally comparative approach to global circulations of knowledge and technology remains of deep relevance to contemporary scholars. I also argue that Needham’s intellectual heritage is unique, substantial and multi-dimensional, reaching well beyond the so-called Needham Question, and will surely continue to encourage and inspire new generations of inquisitive minds.

  • Jianmin Li "Bian Que Dissatisfied ---- Current Debate over Key Issues of Chinese Medicine History" Dr. Jianmin Li Academia Sinica, Taiwan, China
    • Biography

    Dr. Jianmin Li is a research fellow at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. He also teaches at several universities in Taiwan. His specialty is the history of Chinese medicine and of health and healing in ancient China. He is the author of numerous books and articles on medicine and culture in ancient China, among which The Vulnerable Surgeons and the Fading of Surgery in the History of Sinitic Medicine (2018).

    • Abstract

    In view of the Medical Findings in the Laoguanshan Tomb
    - A New body of history? How are people in the current time enlightened by an understanding of the body in the ancient times?
    - What is the history of the source of human strength in Chinese medicine? What is the history of muscle in Chinese medicine?
       What are the terminologies used in ancient China to describe the movement of human parts?
    - What is chroma? How has Chinese medicine been perceived?
    - What is early (methodical) style of mortal medicine?

  • Francesca BRAY "Technology Transfer against the Flow: Learning from China in the British-Indian Tea Industry, 1839-1890" Prof. Francesca BRAY University of Edinburgh, UK
    • Biography

    Francesca Bray is a historian of science, technology and medicine in China, specialising in gender and technology, the politics of historiography, and the history of agriculture and food. Recent publications include Technology, Gender and History in Imperial China (2013); and Rice: Global Networks and New Histories (2015). Her current co-authored project, Moving Crops and the Scales of History, uses crops to experiment with the chronologies and geographies of global history. Francesca has researched and taught in Cambridge, Paris, Taegu, California and Edinburgh, and has just completed a term as President of the Society for the History of Technology.

    • Abstract

    In the late 1830s the British began experimenting with tea-growing in Assam to substitute for expensive imports from China. They transplanted Chinese tea-plants, Chinese tea-coolies and various forms of Chinese skill and expertise into Indian territory, but expected that applying ‘the skill and science of the Europeans’ would speedily transform these raw materials into an efficient, industrialised Western model of tea production. The outcome was far more complex. For historians it is an interesting challenge to think about this protracted hybridisation of an imported technology as a counter-intuitive case of technology transfer, not from West to East but from East to West.