{"title":"Chinese Shipbuilding amid Historical Changes: An Overview","authors":"Xin Zhang","doi":"10.1163/22879811-bja10008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22879811-bja10008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The most significant advance in recent years in the study of Chinese technology is the realization of China’s own achievements in producing and improving technology in a global context. Not only did the realization allow us to move away from the Western-centric narrative that pitted Chinese technology against Western science, but it also brought us to discover the Chinese people’s own identity in technological development. Because of this advance, we are now able to focus our attention on subjects such as technology’s meaning to the average person rather than the perception Chinese intellectuals had of Western science. As a contribution to that effort, this article will provide a synopsis of the history of Chinese shipbuilding from the country’s early civilization to the end of the eighteenth century. I will survey the development of Chinese shipbuilding technology as it reacted to opportunity and challenge over an historical stretch of time. I will suggest that the history of Chinese shipbuilding was marked not only by the Chinese shipbuilders’ ability to take advantage of every opportunity provided by the changes to enhance technology but also by their tenacity in the face of government restrictions on maritime activities. The combination of the two defines the history of Chinese shipbuilding.","PeriodicalId":41200,"journal":{"name":"Asian Review of World Histories","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135998175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Chinese Environmental History: A Manifesto","authors":"Stephen R. Halsey","doi":"10.1163/22879811-bja10010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22879811-bja10010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article argues that scholars should see environmental history not as a specialized subfield but as a research paradigm useful to all students of modern China. It first presents an expanded definition of an “historical actor” and encourages scholars to integrate a range of organic and inorganic Others into their cast of characters. The article then addresses the subject of the environment and time, proposing alternative ways of periodizing Chinese history, linked to the idea of the Anthropocene. In the final section the discussion turns to the problem of space, focusing on the ways that Qing history has reshaped our understanding of the relationship between the natural world, center and periphery, and state formation. Setting aside both declensionist and triumphalist narratives about China’s past, this article suggests that the methods, concepts, and research agenda of environmental history can enrich the work of all students of Chinese history regardless of specialization.","PeriodicalId":41200,"journal":{"name":"Asian Review of World Histories","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135998034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The National Scientific Imperative in Wartime China and the Complex Motivations of Individual Scientists","authors":"J. Megan Greene","doi":"10.1163/22879811-bja10012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22879811-bja10012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Although by the 1930s both state and nonstate actors generally agreed that science was key to the development of a modern China, there was no consensus on what that meant. The Second Sino-Japanese War stimulated a shift toward applied science that framed engagement in applied scientific activities as patriotic. This way of thinking was prevalent in Nationalist institutions. Although most scientists and social scientists understood themselves to be serving the nation, they did not all share this devotion to applied science. This article examines the Nationalist wartime institutional and rhetorical framework for scientific development and the complex ways in which scientists engaged with that framework. It shows that although the Nationalist state sought to bring science and technology into the service of the state, scientists, technicians, and social scientists, though often framing their work in terms of national need, were in fact motivated by a variety of interests and concerns.","PeriodicalId":41200,"journal":{"name":"Asian Review of World Histories","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135998033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"American Empire in Global History, edited by S. Akita","authors":"Yoichi Kibata","doi":"10.1163/22879811-bja10016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22879811-bja10016","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41200,"journal":{"name":"Asian Review of World Histories","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135998030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Shipbuilding, Navigation and the South-West Silk Road: North Odisha, Bengal, Arakan, edited by S. Berthet","authors":"Ranabir Chakravarti","doi":"10.1163/22879811-bja10015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22879811-bja10015","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41200,"journal":{"name":"Asian Review of World Histories","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135998031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction to the Special Forum, “Approaches to Science, Technology, and Environment in Chinese History”","authors":"Xin Zhang","doi":"10.1163/22879811-bja10009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22879811-bja10009","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41200,"journal":{"name":"Asian Review of World Histories","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135998035","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Infrastructure of Science Making in Early Modern China","authors":"Qiong Zhang","doi":"10.1163/22879811-bja10013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22879811-bja10013","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the early modern era China witnessed an explosive growth in discourse regarding things known as bowu . In some ways resembling the study of natural history in Europe, it was oriented toward the strange and exotic. A renowned bowu master, Xie Zhaozhe left behind prolific writings on the subject, recording not only the natural historical knowledge he amassed but also how he produced that knowledge. Using Xie as an empirical case, this article proposes a model for an “infrastructure of science making” with which to conceptualize early modern Chinese science as a situated knowledge. It explores the profiles of Xie’s book learning, of his real-world encounters with natural phenomena through praxis, and of his collaboration and exchange with other members of his discursive community. An in-depth examination of these parameters in his knowledge infrastructure raises some salient points for understanding the broader trends in natural studies in early modern China and the wider early modern world.","PeriodicalId":41200,"journal":{"name":"Asian Review of World Histories","volume":"141 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135998036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Discovering Chinese Science and Technology: A Critical Review","authors":"Xin Zhang","doi":"10.1163/22879811-bja10011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22879811-bja10011","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract For most of the twentieth century, the investigation into the development of science and technology in China has been based on the assumption that China lacked the conditions to achieve that on its own before it was exposed to Western knowledge. The same assumption has led many inquiries into the search for shortcomings in Chinese civilization or the failure to embrace Western knowledge. It was only near the very end of the twentieth century that a breakthrough finally arrived to allow scholars to free themselves from the assumption. This article traces the history of the field as it evolved through nearly a century from denying China’s own identity to finally recognizing it. I aim to show, one of the main reasons many researchers had held this rather Western-centric view for nearly a century was to the influence of the “rise of the West” historical narrative, which dominated the discourse on world history. Only after the narrative was seriously questioned did we begin to witness significant changes in the field toward realizing China’s own achievements and historical trajectory in the development of science and technology.","PeriodicalId":41200,"journal":{"name":"Asian Review of World Histories","volume":"200 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135998029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"American Empire: A Global History, written by A. G. Hopkins","authors":"Seunghoon Han","doi":"10.1163/22879811-bja10014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22879811-bja10014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41200,"journal":{"name":"Asian Review of World Histories","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135998174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}