Science, Technology and Society in Modern East Asia (STSC 316-301)
Dong-Won Kim
(dwkim3@yahoo.com)
Office Hours: By appointment
The course aims to survey the history of science and technology in East Asian countries—China,
Japan and Korea—since the late 19th century. Since Japan was the only nation in East Asia that
succeeded in modernizing itself by adopting Western science, technology and politics, it will be
studied first. The Chinese and Korean cases then will be reviewed with different angles. The
course will emphasize the mutual influence between science & technology and society to answer
how these countries became major industrial powers in the 21st century.
Course Requirements
Participation in the discussion session
25%
Two Essays (15% Each)
30%
Take-Home Final Essay.
20%
Final Project (3 minutes video clip)
25%
Produce a 3-minute video-clip for the final project. The question is, “How much and in what way
does/will the 20th century background influence the development of science and technology in the 21st
century?” Select a specific case in East Asia to answer the question. It must be based on what you
have learned from the course. Please watch some selected video-clips that Harvard students made in
2014 and 2015 to answer the similar question.
1
Course Schedule
1. Closed but Partially Open: Science and Technology in Tokugawa Japan before 1853 (Jan. 14)
Reading:
T. Morris-Suzuki, The Technological Transformation of Japan, chapters 2-3.
2. Samurai Scientists: Formation of Science in Meiji Japan (Jan. 21)
Discussion:
i)
Mikinosuke Miyajima, Teacher and Pupil.
ii)
Masao Watanabe, “From Samurai to Scientist: Yamagawa Kenjiro,” in The Japanese
and Western Science, pp. 6-22.
3. Japanese Nobel Prizes Candidates: Science in Early 20th Century Japan (Jan. 28)
Discussion:
i)
J. Bartholomew, “Japanese Nobel Candidates in the First Half of the Twentieth
Century” in Morris Low (ed.), Beyond Joseph Needham, 238-284.
ii)
Hideki Yukawa, Tabibito, pp. 168-205.
4. Imitate and Innovate: Technology in Late 19th and Early 20th c. Japan (Feb. 4)
Reading:
Morris-Suzuki, The Technological Transformation, chapter 5
Discussion:
i)
Gregory Clancey, “Modernity and Carpenters: Daiku Technique and Meiji
Technocracy,” in Morris Low (ed.), Building a Modern Japan, pp. 183-206.
ii)
Aleksandra Kobiljski, “Simomura Kotaro (1863-1937) and the Circulation of
Technical Knowledge between the United States, Japan, and Belgium,” ExtrêmeOccident, 36 (2013), 155-189.
iii)
Aaron S. Moore, “ ‘The Yalu River Era of Developing Asia’: Japanese Expertise,
Colonial Power and the Construction of Sup’ung Dam,” The Journal of Asian
Studies, 72:1 (2013), 115-139.
5. Challenge to the West: Science and Technology during World War II (Feb. 11)
Reading:
Morris-Suzuki, The Technological Transformation, chapter 6.
Discussion:
2
i)
S. H. Harris, Factories of Death, chapters 5-6.
ii)
Takashi Nishiyama, Engineering War and Peace in Modern Japan, 1868-1964,
chapter 2.
6. Peaceful Use of Science and Technology: Postwar Japan (Feb. 18)
Reading: Morris-Suzuki, The Technological Transformation, chapters 7-8.
Discussion:
i)
Takashi Nishiyama, “Cross-disciplinary Technology Transfer in Trans-World War II
Japan: The Japanese High-Speed Bullet Train as a Case Study,” Comparative
Technology Transfer and Society, 1 (2003), 305-325.
ii)
Hyungsub Choi, “Technology Importation, Corporate Strategies, and the Rise of the
Japanese Semiconductor Industry in the 1950s,” Comparative Technology Transfer
and Society, 6 (2008), 103-126.
iii)
Shigeru Nakayama, Science, Technology and Society in Postwar Japan, chapter 3.
First Essay (Yoshio Nishina) Due to February 18
7. Too Slow and Too Unsystematic: Science and Technology in China before 1949 (Feb. 25)
Discussion:
i)
Reardon-Anderson, The Study of Change, chapters 8-9, 14.
8. Red Scientist and Engineer: China between 1949 and 1976 (Mar. 3)
Discussion:
i)
Danian Hu, “The Reception of Relativity in China,” ISIS 98 (2007), 539-557.
ii)
Joel Andreas, Rise of the Red Engineers, chapters 3 & 7.
9. Fresh New Start: China since 1976 (Mar. 17)
Discussion:
i)
Susan Greenhalgh. "Missile Science, Population Science: The Origins of China's
One-Child Policy," The China Quarterly 182, (2005), 253-276.
ii)
Laurence Schneider, Biology and Revolution in Twentieth-Century China, pp. 213269.
3
iii)
Ezra F. Vogel, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, some selected
pages.
10. Science and Technology for Economic Development: South Korea (Mar. 24)
Discussion:
i)
D. Kim & S. W. Leslie, “Winning Markets or Winning Nobel Prizes?: KAIST and
the Challenges of Late Industrialization” in M. Low (ed.), Beyond Joseph Needham,
154-185.
ii)
Chihyung Jeon, “A Road to Modernization and Unification: The Construction of
Gyeongbu Highway in South Korea,” Technology and Culture 51 (2010), 55-79.
iii)
Tae-Ho Kim, “How Could a Scientist Become a National Celebrity?” East Asian
Science, Technology and Society 2:1 (2008), 27-45.
Second Essay (Threads of the Silkworm) Due to March 24
11. Images of Science and Technology in East Asia (Mar. 31)
Discussion:
Watch the Japanese movie Godzilla (1954) and the South Korean movie The
Host (2006).
12. Sony vs. Samsung (Apr. 7)
Discussion:
Sea-Jin Chang, Sony vs. Samsung
13. Nobel Laureates in Science from East Asia (Apr. 14)
Discussion:
Some selected autobiographies from “Biographical” section of the Nobel Foundation
website.
14. What’s Next? (Apr. 21)
Show your video-clips to your classmates and me. Two questions for the (take-home) final essay
will be given in this last class.
4
<Readings>
* Joel Andreas, Rise of the Red Engineers: The Cultural Revolution and the Origins of China's New Class.
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009).
* James Bartholomew, “Japanese Nobel Candidates in the First Half of the Twentieth Century” in Morris
Low (ed.), Beyond Joseph Needham: Science, Technology, and Medicine in East and Southeast Asia,
Osiris 13 (1998), 238-284.
* Iris Chang, Thread of the Silkworm (New York: Basic Books, 1995).
* Sea-Jin Chang, Sony vs. Samsung (New York: Wiley, 2008).
* Gregory Clancey, “Modernity and Carpenters: Daiku Technique and Meiji Technocracy,” in Morris Low
(ed.), Building a Modern Japan: Science, Technology, and Medicine in the Meiji Era and Beyond (New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), pp. 183-206.
* Hyungsub Choi, “Technology Importation, Corporate Strategies, and the Rise of the Japanese
Semiconductor Industry in the 1950s,” Comparative Technology Transfer and Society, 6 (2008), 103-126.
* Susan Greenhalgh. "Missile Science, Population Science: The Origins of China's One-Child Policy."
The China Quarterly 182, (2005), 253-276.
* Sheldon H. Harris, Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932-45 and the American Cover-up
(London: Routledge, 1994).
* Danian Hu, “The Reception of Relativity in China,” ISIS 98 (2007), 539-557.
* Chihyung Jeon, “A Road to Modernization and Unification: The Construction of Gyeongbu Highway in
South Korea,” Technology and Culture 51 (2010), 55-79.
* Dong-Won Kim, Yoshio Nishina: Father of Modern Physics in Japan (New York: Taylor & Francis,
2007).
* Tae-Ho Kim, “How Could a Scientist Become a National Celebrity?” East Asian Science, Technology and
Society 2:1 (2008), 27-45.
* Aleksandra Kobiljski, “Simomura Kotaro (1863-1937) and the Circulation of Technical Knowledge
between the United States, Japan, and Belgium,” Extrême-Occident, 36 (2013), 155-189.
* Morris Low (ed.), Beyond Joseph Needham: Science, Technology, and Medicine in East and Southeast
Asia, Osiris 13 (1998).
* Morris Low (ed.), Building a Modern Japan: Science, Technology, and Medicine in the Meiji Era and
Beyond (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
5
* Mikinosuke Miyajima, Teacher and Pupil (Tokyo, 1935).
* Tessa Morris-Suzuki, The Technological Transformation of Japan: From the Seventeenth to the
Twentieth-first Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
* Aaron S. Moore, “ ‘The Yalu River Era of Developing Asia’: Japanese Expertise, Colonial Power and the
Construction of Sup’ung Dam,” The Journal of Asian Studies, 72:1 (2013), 115-139.
* Shigeru Nakayama, Science, Technology and Society in Postwar Japan (London: Kegan Paul International,
1991).
* Takashi Nishiyama, “Cross-disciplinary Technology Transfer in Trans-World War II Japan: The Japanese
High-Speed Bullet Train as a Case Study,” Comparative Technology Transfer and Society, 1 (2003), 305325.
* Takashi Nishiyama, Engineering War and Peace in Modern Japan, 1868-1964 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 2014).
* James Reardon-Anderson, The Study of Change: Chemistry in China, 1840-1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1991).
* Laurence Schneider, Biology and Revolution in Twentieth-Century China (London: Rowman & Littlefiend
Publishers, 2003).
* Ezra F. Vogel, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, 2011).
* Masao Watanabe, “From Samurai to Scientist: Yamagawa Kenjiro,” in The Japanese and Western Science,
translated by Otto Theodor Benfey (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1976), pp. 6-22.
* Hideki Yukawa, Tabibito (The Traveler), translated by Laurie M. Brown & R. Yoshida (Singapore: World
Scientific, 1982).
Note: Books in bold fonts are required textbooks. Other readings for discussion sessions will be distributed
later electronically.
6