Susan Greenhalgh and Li Zhang, eds., Can Science and Technology Save China?

Abstract

This edited volume, composed of eight anthropological studies, explores the modernization and governance of contemporary China through the lens of STS. The overarching question is straightforward, as per the title: can science and technology save China? In short, the authors examine the essence of the Chinese dream of “national rejuvenation/salvation through science and technology” (科技强/救国 keji qiang/jiu guo). The volume addresses several questions, namely how this dream is articulated and circulated through Chinese society, what discourses, practices, moralities, and subjectivities are invoked and produced by this state-science-and-technology-driven modernization project, and whether China has realized its dream of national rejuvenation/salvation through science and technology. The volume’s eight essays offer rich ethnographic descriptions of various science and technology fields in contemporary China, e.g. public health, biomedicine, environmental science, pollution control, mental health, and psychology. As a cumulative work, they formulate the following themes.