Article ID: CBB789107849

Chen Ziying and Woods Hole: Bringing the Marine Biological Laboratory to Amoy, China, 1930–1936 (2021)

unapi

This article examines Chen Ziying, an American-trained Chinese biologist and his prewar efforts to bring his Woods Hole experience from the United States to China between 1930 and 1936. I argue that the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) appears as a prominent American scientific institution in the twentieth century among visiting Chinese students and scholars who were drawn to the American approach of building world-class seaside laboratories to facilitate marine biological study while cultivating a collaborative culture via songs of biology. Chen was one of the leading US-trained Chinese scientists who aspired to the international trend of developing coastal biology in the early twentieth century and was determined to modernize China’s discipline-building of biology with the construction of marine research facilities similar to the MBL. I show that Chen’s efforts of bringing the MBL practice to China took place at a time when science in China was overshadowed by the impulse of nationalism. Despite the nationalistic rhetoric, Chen was able to establish a Chinese connection with Woods Hole by introducing the MBL cultural practices of songs with biological significance. Lyrics from popular biological songs such as “It’s a Long Way from Amphioxus” and “Songs of Amoy” reflect not just Darwinian themes but also a transnational connection between American and Chinese biologists in Republican-era China––a period in modern Chinese history that is often characterized by soaring sentiments of nationalism. This paper sets out to reconsider the interplay of scientific nationalism and scientific internationalism in shaping marine science in modern China, as well as to reflect on the meanings of value-laden terms such as “nationalism” and “foreignness” and their conceptual impacts on writing the historiography of biology in twentieth-century China.

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Article Christine Y. L. Luk (2022) Correction to: Ziying and Woods Hole: Bringing the Marine Biological Laboratory to Amoy, China, 1930–1936. Journal of the History of Biology (pp. 207-207). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB789107849/

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Authors & Contributors
Wallace Heim
Campanella, Sara
Li, Xinsheng
Subhankar Banerjee
Mark Toogood
Feng, Linda Rui
Concepts
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations
Marine biology
Coastal zone and estuarine studies
Communication within scientific contexts
Societies; institutions; academies
Aquatic biology
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Ming dynasty (China, 1368-1644)
Tang dynasty (China, 618-907)
Places
China
United States
Republic of China (1912-1949)
England
Switzerland
Italy
Institutions
Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory
Carnegie Institution’s Dry Tortugas Laboratory
Freshwater Biological Association
China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture
Naples. Stazione Zoologica
Census of Marine Life (1999-2009)
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