Concluding conversation: decentring science diplomacy.

Gordon Barrett (GB): Research Associate, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, UK (special issue co-editor).

An antiquated language, reimaginedKingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern Jing Tsu Riverhead Books, 2022. 336 pp.

A new tome traces efforts to unify, reform, and modernize the Chinese language.

Transnational science during the Cold War: the case of Chinese/American scientists.

This essay examines the experiences of about five thousand Chinese students/scientists in the United States after the Communist takeover of mainland China in 1949. These experiences illustrate the often hidden transnational movements of people, instruments, and ideas in science and technology across the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. I argue that those hundreds who returned to China represented a partial "Americanization" of Chinese science and technology, while the rest of the group staying in the United States contributed to a transnationalization of the American scientific community.

History of science and American science policy.

Historians of science have participated actively in debates over American science policy in the post-World War II period in a variety of ways, but their impact has been more to elucidate general concepts than to effect specific policy changes. Personal experiences, in the case of the debate over global warming, have demonstrated both the value and the limits of such involvement for the making of public policy. To be effective, historians of science need to strive for clarity in public expression, to accept the importance of engaging with the public at all levels and through diverse media, and, above all, to recognize that the nature of such debates will make normal scholarly nuance hard to achieve. Moreover, in the current political climate, historians may be surprised to find themselves defending sciences, when the usual stance of historians is to be critical.

Science and the state in modern China.

The question of the role of the state has, in one way or another, dominated historical studies of science and technology in modern China, a field that has experienced rapid growth since the early 1980s both inside and outside of China. While Western scholars have focused their analysis on the state control of science and scientists, Chinese historians and writers, often working under political restrictions, have largely adopted a descriptive approach with an emphasis on biographical, institutional, and disciplinary histories and on the theme of Chinese nationalism. The emergence of an international community of younger historians of science, the easing of access to primary source materials, and new attention to transnational and comparative perspectives promise to make the field an exciting area of scholarship.