Knowledge Production in Mao-Era China: Learning from the Masses

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

This book traces and analyzes the transformation of the public discourse of science and technology in Mao-era China. Based on extensive primary sources such as science dissemination materials and technical handbooks, as well as mass media products of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution periods, this book delineates the emergence of a pragmatic approach to knowledge in society. To achieve the goal of fast modernization with limited financial, human, and material resources, the party-state accommodated Western and local, "modern" and "traditional" knowledges in the fields of agricultural mechanization, steel production and Chinese veterinary medicine. The case studies demonstrate that scientific knowledge production in the Mao-era included various social groups and was entangled with political and cultural issues. This reveals and explains the continuity of scientific thinking across the historical divides of 1949 and 1978, which has hitherto been underestimated.

Reviews

This richly textured history takes readers on a fascinating journey into the world of science dissemination and mass science in the early Peoples Republic of China. Tracing the significance of experiment as method and social practice, Matten and Kunze probe the connection between science and state-building and reveal a plurality of knowledge systems that spanned agriculture, technology, medicine, veterinary medicine, and more. The result is a highly original, incisive, and lucid contribution to modern Chinese history and the history of scientific knowledge and state governance in the twentieth century.

Author Bio

Rui Kunze is a research fellow at FriedrichAlexander University ErlangenNremberg.

Marc Andre Matten is professor of contemporary Chinese history at FriedrichAlexander University ErlangenNremberg.