Between politics and academics: Xu Guansan's translation of Evolution in Action in the Cold War Hong Kong.

Abstract

The Cold War's bipolarity between the Free World and the Communist World was evident across diplomacy, literature, military competition. Science, where research and publications often reflected opposing ideologies, is undoubtedly a crucial area. Julian Huxley's Evolution in Action (1953), a scientific work on genetics, exemplifies the scientific outlook of the Free World. Under the auspices of Aid Refugee Chinese Intellectuals, an American anti-communist organization helping with the resettlement of Chinese refugees, Huxley's Evolution in Action was translated by Xu Guansan and published in Hong Kong in 1953. Through Xu's translation, both the political image of Huxley and the political elements of Evolution were deliberately downplayed. For Xu, genetic knowledge was not merely an expression of political ideology but a means to promote his academic beliefs, particularly integrating historical studies with scientific disciplines. In this sense, Evolution lost the original political significance attributed to it by the Cold War bipolarity when it traveled to Hong Kong via translation. Examing Xu Guansan's translation of genetic knowledge complicates the history of science in Cold War Hong Kong by offering an aspect from the individual who reproduced the scientific work.