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THE G2000 GROUP Owner & Operator of G2000 & U2 Stores H A R V A R D A S I A P A C I F I C R E V I E W V O L U M E VI • I S S U E 2 THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION IN ASIA 6 Whither Biotechnology in Japan? Why biotechnology hasn’t yet taken off By Arthur Kornberg 10 Manchurian Plague Medicine and politics, East and West By William Summers 16 The Future of Chinese Education Educational reform and development in China By Chen Zhili 22 Libraries in Asia New life for libraries in the digital age By Hwa-Wei Lee 25 China’s Manned Space Program What is that all about? By Joan Johnson-Freese 34 Research and Development in China Traditions, transformations, and the future of science and technology policy By Zeng Guoping and Li Zhengfeng 37 Science and Technology in China Personal recommendations for the advancement of Chinese technology By Shing-Tung Yau 44 The Chinese Mindset What science and technology have done for modern China By Song Jian 46 Papermaking in China Ancient science and technology transfer By Pan Jixing 2 Fall 2002 – Volume 6, Number 2 CHINA China and the WTO 50 A report from one year after accession By Jin Liqun Globalization and Federalization 56 New challenges for Asia and the world By Wu Jiaxiang China’s Socioeconomically Disadvantaged 62 Breaking the surface of a challenging problem By Wu Junhua NORTHEAST ASIA Elections in Japan 66 How elections affect the economy By Junichiro Wada North Korea 69 Present and future By Robert Scalapino CENTRAL AND SOUTH ASIA Schooling in Iran 76 Education in Central Asia’s Most Enigmatic Country By Yadollah Mehralizadeh Globalizing What? 79 History, economics, equity, and efficiency By Amartya Sen PAN ASIA Cities and Globalization 83 The present and future of urban space By Saskia Sassen East and West 88 The ideogram versus the phonogram By Shigeru Nakayama Harvard Asia Pacific Review 3 H A R V A R D EDITOR IN CHIEF SAMUEL H. LIPOFF A S I A P A C I F I C R E V I E W BUSINESS MANAGER WINNIE FUNG When speaking with a noted Chinese historian about the Harvard Asia Pa- MANAGING EDITORS cific Review, I mentioned that this issue focuses on the Scientific Revolution in Asia. ALEX BERENBERG Without missing a beat he asked, “Which one?” Readers of T.S. Kuhn’s seminal EVA SHI work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, or those who have followed the ensu- ing so-called “Culture Wars,” know that even defining “revolution”—not to men- EXECUTIVE MANAGERS tion defining “science”—proves no easy task. Indeed Joseph Needham devoted thou- PATRICK CHUN sands of marvelous pages in the series Science and Civilization in China, to inquiry KENT LAM into science—and its revolutions—in the Sinic world. By my reckoning, for what it’s worth, there have been many scientific revolu- REGIONAL EDITORS tions in Asia—many periods of profound change in how the natural world has been XIAOYU GU viewed. Ancient Chinese scientists—natural philosophers, mathematicians, and schol- JAMES KRUZER ars—made deep and important discoveries from the rarified air of mathematics, to JOYCE KWOK the most practical technologies. These did not amount to a mere catalog of inventions, LINDA ZHANG but rather science and scholarship became an integral part of Ancient Chinese cul- ture—one needs only to read the merest scrap of Classical Chinese philosophy or STAFF EDITORS literature to see immediately that this is the case. JENNIFER CASWELL China had perhaps more contact with outside cultures than we might be accus- CONSIN JIN tomed to believe—between Mongolian invaders, Indian mystics, Central Asian mer- MAI-MAI LIN chants, and many others, knowledge about China, and knowledge of the world SOOJIN NAM outside of China, circulated through the great corridor between Asia and Europe for MAIKO NAKARAI centuries. Still another kind of scientific revolution ensued as direct contact between GRIFFIN SCHROEDER China and Europe, became common, and ideas, culture, and technologies began to YINGZHEN ZHANG become truly globalized. Of all of the Asian countries, it is assuredly Japan that has the longest modern scientific tradition, easily extending far back into the nineteenth century. This too was not the surface trappings of a developing nation, but a deep BUSINESS STAFF and significant cultural heritage—there were even science museums in Japan before STEPHEN FAN the twentieth century! LEI YE Many Asian countries have been known for rapid and successful deployment of technology in the twentieth century. Besides Japan, the “four little tigers”—Hong DESIGN EDITORS Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore—have all had economic success in high JASON CHIANG technology industries. But is this the same as a scientific revolution? ANN LAI There is a truly crucial point here: science and technology are not one and the same. Although Ancient China had indeed produced a host of technological inven- CONSULTING EDITORS tions, they did not spring forth from Chinese minds like Athena from the head of LOREN HEINOLD Zeus. Technology requires a scientific foundation—while you can train people to CHRISTOPHER LEIGHTON implement technology, there is no training—in the traditional sense of the word— KATHY LU for science. Rather, science is cultural, requires a deep commitment to truth and WAI-TIM YU inquiry across an entire society, and the willingness to support an educational system YIPENG ZHAO that allows for unplanned and unexpected exploration. Asia is at the cusp of just such a scientific revolution—it is a place where BOARD OF ADVISORS scientists are already revered as cultural icons, where students and society have a deep CARTER ECKERT respect for learning and study, and there are monetary resources available to support AKIRA IRIYE science. Other pieces of the puzzle—from increased interaction with foreign scholars, WILLIAM KIRBY to maturing university systems—are just now beginning to come together. It has been LEO OU-FAN LEE a true privilege to put together this collection of articles that documents just a small RODERICK MACFARQUHAR slice of a very exciting time and place for science. THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION IN ASIA SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscription Price: Per year (two issues) US $20. In this issue, Stanford University Professor and Nobel Laureate Arthur For subscriptions outside the United States, Kornberg discusses why biotechnology hasn’t yet taken off in Japan, and precisely please add US $10 per year for shipping. For advertising or distribution inquiries, please call what sorts of cultural, political, and economic features must be present for healthy (617)495-3437 or write or e-mail us at the science and technology in Asia. William Summers of Yale University illuminates a addressbelow. The Harvard Asia Pacific Review is fascinating incident in the history of medicine in China at the turn of the century, printed in the United States of America. and at the intersection of Eastern and Western scientific traditions. Because educa- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR tion is such a crucial component of science, China’s Minister of Education, Chen Letters to the editor should be addressed to the Zhili, recounts the progress of education in China since 1949, and the future chal- Editor-In-Chief, Harvard Asia Pacific Review, lenges that lie ahead. Similarly, libraries are an unheralded feature of scientific 9 Kirkland Place, Cambridge, MA 02138 or may scholarship, but are absolutely essential to quality research. Hwa-Wei Lee brings his be e-mailed to [email protected]. Please note that bibliographical information used in vast experience as the Dean of Libraries of a major American research university, the preparation of individual articles will be and his continuing involvement with libraries in Asia, to bear on an analysis of available on our on-line version, but will not be fully reproduced in print. The Review reserves these cultural treasures. As a change of pace, Joan Johnson-Freese of the Naval the right to edit all submissions. War College analyzes China’s current space program, and what effects it might have on both science and technology, just as the space race between the Soviet Union and INFORMATION the United States brought with it unexpected scientific returns and technological The Harvard Asia Pacific Review, an official spin-offs. From the Center for Science, Technology and Society at Qinghua Univer- undergraduate organization of Harvard University and an affiliate of the Department sity in Beijing, Zeng Guoping and Li Zhengfeng look directly at China’s science and of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, is technology policies and tell us what’s happened, what’s going on now, and what’s published twice each year. This issue is Volume 6, Number 2, Copyright © 2002. ISSN 1522- changing. Harvard University Professor Shing-Tung Yau offers his personal views 1113. No material appearing in this publication on what China needs to do in order to have real science, what’s it’s doing wrong today, may be reproduced without permission of the and why science is so important. Noted Chinese scientist and policy maker Song Jian editors. The opinions expressed in this journal are those of the contributors and do not offers his view on what science and technology have accomplished for China and how necessarily reflect the views of the editors. China’s historical tradition bears on questions of present-day importance. Pan Jixing, Special thanks to the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies for their financial support. the noted historian of Chinese papermaking, offers his own insights into this incred- ible historical heritage, and how technology can spread across the globe with surpris- TRANSLATION CREDITS ing trajectories. At the very close of this issue, Japanese historian of Science Shigeru “Research and Development in China” Nakayama offers his personal view on some differences between East and West translated by Chenling Zhang focusing on the ideogram versus the phonogram.