Fa-Ti Fan
Biographic Data
| ID | 115867 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Fa-Ti Fan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Fa-Ti |
| FAMILY NAME | Fan |
| SIGNATURE | FAN F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Feminist Archive North |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 27 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Multispecies History, It’s the Cat’s Meow
From Postcolonial to Post-Covid
This essay reflects on the theories and methods of global science and technology studies (STS). It first examines postcolonial STS and points out certain problems and limitations of the approach. It then discusses a few alternative approaches that have benefited from postcolonial STS, and also tries to carve out new directions. Finally, this article uses China and the current pandemic as a case study to explore certain critical questions for a ne…
Mr. Science”, May Fourth, and the Global History of Science
This paper argues that Mr. Science and the May 4th Movement was a significant chapter in the global history of science. To contextualize the story better, I will adopt three broad interpretive frames. First, I shall place Mr. Science and May Fourth in a longer view than the particular events in the 1910s–1920s. This will allow us to trace the historical changes and the evolving institutions, discourses, and practitioners of science over a few gen…
Can animals predict earthquakes
JAS Round Table on Amitav Ghosh,The Great Derangement
Amitav Ghosh, perhaps Asia's most prominent living author, moves among many genres and across vast territories. His fiction-The Circle of Reason(1986),The Shadow Lines(1988),The Glass Place(2000),The Hungry Tide(2004), andThe Ibistrilogy-takes us from Calcutta where he was born in 1956 to the Arabian Sea, Paris, London, and back again to the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and beyond. His nonfiction-In an Antique Land(1992),Dancing in Cambodia a…
Modernity, Region, and Technoscience
This article is a historiographical and methodological intervention in the discussion of modernity, coloniality, and global history. It does two things. First, it highlights an important but neglected topic in the existing literature on modernity and globalization, viz. the significant role of science in traditional narratives of modernity. These traditional narratives have been challenged by new approaches in both history of science and history …
Doing East Asian STS Is Like Feeling an Elephant, and That Is a Good Thing
East Asian STS is like an elephant whose shape we are trying to determine by touching it in the dark. It appears differently to different investigators. This is a good thing, as is amply demonstrat
The Global Turn in the History of Science
This essay discusses the recent rise of interest in the global history of science. It first explains the central characteristics of this new scholarly development and distinguishes it from the earlier projects of studying science in a world-historical context pursued by George Sarton and Joseph Needham. It then identifies and critiques two images or models that have been widely adopted by scholars to discuss science in a global context, namely, c…
Collective Monitoring, Collective Defense
ArgumentThis paper examines the earthquake monitoring and prediction program, called "collective monitoring, collective defense," in communist China during the Cultural Revolution, a period of political upheavals and natural disasters. Guided by their scientific and political ideas, the Chinese developed approaches to earthquake monitoring and prediction that emphasized mass participation, everyday knowledge, and observations of macro-seismic phe…
Science, State, and Citizens
The existing literature on the problem of science and the state tends to focus mainly on the relationship between the state and the scientific community, which it often sees merely in terms of conflict or collaboration. To obtain a more nuanced view, this article suggests that it is necessary and useful to include other relevant historical parameters in the picture, notably those related to expertise and citizenship broadly defined. By examining …
Science in Cultural Borderlands
This article examines the methodological issues arising from the study of science and European imperialism. Drawing upon recent scholarship in a variety of fields, it argues for a combination of the concepts of “cultural borderlands” and “scientific imperialism” in analyzing the formation of science in cultural encounter. It also urges STS scholars to pay more attention to the field sciences. Although the focus of the article is on science and Br…
East Asian STS
In his position paper for the EASTS, Professor Fu raises a series of issues that help define the mission and outlook of the journal. They may be summarized in question form as follows: (1) Is East
Science in Cultural Borderlands
This article examines the methodological issues arising from the study of science and European imperialism. Drawing upon recent scholarship in a variety of fields, it argues for a combination of the concepts of “cultural borderlands” and “scientific imperialism” in analyzing the formation of science in cultural encounter. It also urges STS scholars to pay more attention to the field sciences. Although the focus of the article is on science and Br…
East Asian STS
Germ-Free China
British Naturalists in Qing China
This book is the first comprehensive study on this topic. In a series of vivid chapters, Fa-ti Fan examines the research of British naturalists in China in relation to the history of natural history, of empire, and of Sino–Western relations.
Victorian naturalists in China
This paper discusses the research of British naturalists in China during the period between the Opium War and the collapse of the Qing dynasty (1839–1911). China was defeated in the Opium War and forced to open treaty ports for trade with the Westerners. The foreign powers, particularly Britain, imposed upon the Qing government treaties, concession leases, favourable trade conditions, legal privileges and so on to reduce its political autonomy. I…
Science in a Chinese Entrepôt
This essay examines the scientific research of British naturalists and their Chinese associates in the port city of Canton (Guangzhou) in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Due to China's strict foreign policy, British research into the horticulture and natural history of China depended heavily on the urban environment of Canton as a global entrepôt. The city was a hub for maritime trade and a contact zone of cultural encounters. The …
Science and medicine, Asia and Europe
Hybrid Discourse and Textual Practice
L'objectif de cet article est d'examiner les facons dont la recherche scientifique occidentale, dans sa quete d'ecrits d'histoire naturelle provenant d'Extreme-Orient, plus particulierement de Chine, a forme un discours hybride entre sinologie et histoire naturelle. L'auteur se concentre sur les processus utilises par les naturalistes occidentaux pour expliquer et interpreter la connaissance du monde vivant par les Chinois telle qu'elle apparait …
Collective Monitoring, Collective Defense
ArgumentThis paper examines the earthquake monitoring and prediction program, called "collective monitoring, collective defense," in communist China during the Cultural Revolution, a period of political upheavals and natural disasters. Guided by their scientific and political ideas, the Chinese developed approaches to earthquake monitoring and prediction that emphasized mass participation, everyday knowledge, and observations of macro-seismic phe…
JAS Round Table on Amitav Ghosh,The Great Derangement
Amitav Ghosh, perhaps Asia's most prominent living author, moves among many genres and across vast territories. His fiction-The Circle of Reason(1986),The Shadow Lines(1988),The Glass Place(2000),The Hungry Tide(2004), andThe Ibistrilogy-takes us from Calcutta where he was born in 1956 to the Arabian Sea, Paris, London, and back again to the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and beyond. His nonfiction-In an Antique Land(1992),Dancing in Cambodia a…
Modernity, Region, and Technoscience
This article is a historiographical and methodological intervention in the discussion of modernity, coloniality, and global history. It does two things. First, it highlights an important but neglected topic in the existing literature on modernity and globalization, viz. the significant role of science in traditional narratives of modernity. These traditional narratives have been challenged by new approaches in both history of science and history …
Science in a Chinese Entrepôt
This essay examines the scientific research of British naturalists and their Chinese associates in the port city of Canton (Guangzhou) in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Due to China's strict foreign policy, British research into the horticulture and natural history of China depended heavily on the urban environment of Canton as a global entrepôt. The city was a hub for maritime trade and a contact zone of cultural encounters. The …
Can animals predict earthquakes
Science, State, and Citizens
The existing literature on the problem of science and the state tends to focus mainly on the relationship between the state and the scientific community, which it often sees merely in terms of conflict or collaboration. To obtain a more nuanced view, this article suggests that it is necessary and useful to include other relevant historical parameters in the picture, notably those related to expertise and citizenship broadly defined. By examining …
Hybrid Discourse and Textual Practice
L'objectif de cet article est d'examiner les facons dont la recherche scientifique occidentale, dans sa quete d'ecrits d'histoire naturelle provenant d'Extreme-Orient, plus particulierement de Chine, a forme un discours hybride entre sinologie et histoire naturelle. L'auteur se concentre sur les processus utilises par les naturalistes occidentaux pour expliquer et interpreter la connaissance du monde vivant par les Chinois telle qu'elle apparait …
Science and medicine, Asia and Europe
Victorian naturalists in China
This paper discusses the research of British naturalists in China during the period between the Opium War and the collapse of the Qing dynasty (1839–1911). China was defeated in the Opium War and forced to open treaty ports for trade with the Westerners. The foreign powers, particularly Britain, imposed upon the Qing government treaties, concession leases, favourable trade conditions, legal privileges and so on to reduce its political autonomy. I…
Science in a Chinese Entrepôt
This essay examines the scientific research of British naturalists and their Chinese associates in the port city of Canton (Guangzhou) in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Due to China's strict foreign policy, British research into the horticulture and natural history of China depended heavily on the urban environment of Canton as a global entrepôt. The city was a hub for maritime trade and a contact zone of cultural encounters. The …
British Naturalists in Qing China
This book is the first comprehensive study on this topic. In a series of vivid chapters, Fa-ti Fan examines the research of British naturalists in China in relation to the history of natural history, of empire, and of Sino–Western relations.
Germ-Free China
Science in Cultural Borderlands
This article examines the methodological issues arising from the study of science and European imperialism. Drawing upon recent scholarship in a variety of fields, it argues for a combination of the concepts of “cultural borderlands” and “scientific imperialism” in analyzing the formation of science in cultural encounter. It also urges STS scholars to pay more attention to the field sciences. Although the focus of the article is on science and Br…
East Asian STS
In his position paper for the EASTS, Professor Fu raises a series of issues that help define the mission and outlook of the journal. They may be summarized in question form as follows: (1) Is East
Science in Cultural Borderlands
This article examines the methodological issues arising from the study of science and European imperialism. Drawing upon recent scholarship in a variety of fields, it argues for a combination of the concepts of “cultural borderlands” and “scientific imperialism” in analyzing the formation of science in cultural encounter. It also urges STS scholars to pay more attention to the field sciences. Although the focus of the article is on science and Br…
East Asian STS
Doing East Asian STS Is Like Feeling an Elephant, and That Is a Good Thing
East Asian STS is like an elephant whose shape we are trying to determine by touching it in the dark. It appears differently to different investigators. This is a good thing, as is amply demonstrat
The Global Turn in the History of Science
This essay discusses the recent rise of interest in the global history of science. It first explains the central characteristics of this new scholarly development and distinguishes it from the earlier projects of studying science in a world-historical context pursued by George Sarton and Joseph Needham. It then identifies and critiques two images or models that have been widely adopted by scholars to discuss science in a global context, namely, c…
Collective Monitoring, Collective Defense
ArgumentThis paper examines the earthquake monitoring and prediction program, called "collective monitoring, collective defense," in communist China during the Cultural Revolution, a period of political upheavals and natural disasters. Guided by their scientific and political ideas, the Chinese developed approaches to earthquake monitoring and prediction that emphasized mass participation, everyday knowledge, and observations of macro-seismic phe…
Science, State, and Citizens
The existing literature on the problem of science and the state tends to focus mainly on the relationship between the state and the scientific community, which it often sees merely in terms of conflict or collaboration. To obtain a more nuanced view, this article suggests that it is necessary and useful to include other relevant historical parameters in the picture, notably those related to expertise and citizenship broadly defined. By examining …
JAS Round Table on Amitav Ghosh,The Great Derangement
Amitav Ghosh, perhaps Asia's most prominent living author, moves among many genres and across vast territories. His fiction-The Circle of Reason(1986),The Shadow Lines(1988),The Glass Place(2000),The Hungry Tide(2004), andThe Ibistrilogy-takes us from Calcutta where he was born in 1956 to the Arabian Sea, Paris, London, and back again to the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and beyond. His nonfiction-In an Antique Land(1992),Dancing in Cambodia a…
Modernity, Region, and Technoscience
This article is a historiographical and methodological intervention in the discussion of modernity, coloniality, and global history. It does two things. First, it highlights an important but neglected topic in the existing literature on modernity and globalization, viz. the significant role of science in traditional narratives of modernity. These traditional narratives have been challenged by new approaches in both history of science and history …
Can animals predict earthquakes
Mr. Science”, May Fourth, and the Global History of Science
This paper argues that Mr. Science and the May 4th Movement was a significant chapter in the global history of science. To contextualize the story better, I will adopt three broad interpretive frames. First, I shall place Mr. Science and May Fourth in a longer view than the particular events in the 1910s–1920s. This will allow us to trace the historical changes and the evolving institutions, discourses, and practitioners of science over a few gen…
From Postcolonial to Post-Covid
This essay reflects on the theories and methods of global science and technology studies (STS). It first examines postcolonial STS and points out certain problems and limitations of the approach. It then discusses a few alternative approaches that have benefited from postcolonial STS, and also tries to carve out new directions. Finally, this article uses China and the current pandemic as a case study to explore certain critical questions for a ne…
Multispecies History, It’s the Cat’s Meow
China (15 works) · History (14 works) · Political science (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · History (8 works) · History of Science and Medicine (7 works)