This project seeks to understand the transnational history of "Chinese-American scientists" including both those who returned to China (where many of them became leaders in the Chinese scientific, nuclear, and space programs), and those who stayed in the US (where they became scientific leaders and played crucial roles in US-China scientific exchanges). The focal point is the period that begins in 1949 with the Chinese Communist takeover of mainland China, which drove the ruling Nationalists to Taiwan. The event left about five thousand Chinese students and scholars, mostly in the sciences and engineering, "stranded" in the United States. Eventually about one thousand of them returned to China by the end of the 1950s while the rest stayed in the US, with profound but so far relatively unexplored impact on science in both countries and on Sino-American scientific interactions during the Cold War and beyond.
Intellectual Merit This study, which is based on archival research and oral history interviews, will serve to address key questions in the history of science such as: What were the extent and limits of the so-called "Americanization" of international science in the postwar period? How was the Americanizing influence in turn connected with the transnationalization of the American scientific community itself, as exemplified by the presence of tens of thousands of Chinese American scientists and engineers?
Potential Broader Impacts With the rise of China as an economic and scientific power, and with the emergence of global problems such as climate change that require the scientific collaboration between the US and China, it is more critical than ever to understand fully the making of the scientific enterprise in modern China. Furthermore, as the US relies more and more on immigrant scientists, a systematic study of Chinese-American scientists will also help us better understand the American scientific enterprise and help inform the making of American national and international science policy.
" sought to investigate the history of Chinese/American scientists, especially the experiences of about five thousands of Chinese students and scientists in the US at the time of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. About 1200 of these students/scientists returned to China in the 1950s (the "returnees") while most of the rest stayed in the US (the "stayees"), both groups playing influential roles in the making of transnational science in the US and China and in promoting US-China scientific exchanges and collaboration. The term "Chinese/American scientists" is used here to refer to both returnees and stayees. The major goals of this project have been to better understand the history of these Chinese/American scientists and modern science in the US and China and to help improve science policy making in the form of articles, lectures, and eventually a scholarly book. Research and work supported in part by this NSF grant have led to a considerable expansion of valuable research materials, including archival materials and oral history interviews with about three dozens of surviving members of Chinese American scientists from the 1949 generation in both the US and China, mostly in their 80s and 90s, an integration of research and teaching, a number of activities in public outreach and engagement related to Chinese American scientists and US-China scientific relations, especially to Asian American community groups, and the publication of some of the preliminary research findings related to the history of Chinese American scientists and US-China scientific relations in both English and Chinese in the forms of lectures, presentations, journal articles and book chapters. As a result of this grant project, I believe that a fascinating story of Chinese American scientists’ experiences and US-China scientific movements and connections during the Cold War and beyond has emerged, with rich details and with possibly far-reaching implications for our thinking about the transnational nature of science in the US, China, and much of the modern world. I further believe that this project has helped to rescue an important part of our national and international scientific history and will do more as I and possibly other scholars and members of the public continue to utilize materials, information, and insights developed out of this grant project. Specifically, magazine/journal articles and book chapters, published or in preparation, that have resulted in part from this grant project have included (in chronological order of dates of publication): Zuoyue Wang, "Engineering a New Space: Chinese American Scientists and Engineers in Aerospace in Southern California," in Blue Sky Metropolis: Aerospace and Southern California, eds. Peter J. Westwick and William Deverell (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, in press, forthcoming in 2011) (peer-reviewed). Zuoyue Wang, "China, Sputnik, and American Science," APS [American Physical Society] News 20, no. 10 (November 2011): 4, 7. Chinese translation published in Modern Physics Knowledge, no. 1 (2012), 15-16. Xiaodong Yin and Zuoyue Wang, "A Historical Study of Chinese Physicists’ Visits at the Niels Bohr Institute of Denmark in the 1960s," Studies in the History of Natural Sciences 32, no. 4 (2013): 470-490. In Chinese with English abstract. Zuoyue Wang and others (eds.), Fang Lizhi in Science: A Memorial Collection (Hong Kong: Mirror Books, 2014). Zuoyue Wang, "The Cold War and the Reshaping of Transnational Science in China," in Nation and Knowledge: Science and Technology in the Global Cold War, ed. Naomi Oreskes and John Krige (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014), 343-370. Zuoyue Wang, entries on Chinese American scientists "Chen Ning Yang," "Tsung Dao Lee," and "Chien Shiung Wu" in Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology in America, ed. Hugh Slotten (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). Zuoyue Wang, "The Sputnik Moments: Science and Technology Policy from Eisenhower to Obama," in Ike Reconsidered: Lessons from the Eisenhower Legacy for the 21st Century, ed. Andrew J. Polsky, under review. Zuoyue Wang, "The United States and China’s Atomic Bomb: A Historical Study of Nuclear Experiences, Expertise, and Prudence," in preparation for "Nuclear Experts and Expertise," a proposed issue of Osiris guest-edited by Carola Sachse, Gabrielle Metzler, and Mark Walker. Zuoyue Wang, "The Chinese Developmental State during the Cold War: The Making of the 1956 Twelve-Year Science and Technology Plan," in preparation for "Nation, Knowledge and Imagined Futures," a proposed special issue of History and Technology guest-edited by John Krige and Jessica Wang.
