Overview
- Explores the scientific and technical issues of importing steamship technology into nineteenth-century China
- Examines how translation might have achieved in bringing new understanding of heat to late Qing Chinese literati
- Shows how China’s first engineering school was established to train shipbuilding workers and engineers
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About this book
This book explores how steam engine technology was transferred into nineteenth-century China in the second half of the nineteenth century by focusing on the transmission of knowledge and skills. It takes on the long-term problem in historiography that puts too much emphasis on politics but ignores the techno-scientific and institutional requirements for launching such an endeavor. It examines how translations broke linguistic and conceptual barriers and brought new a understanding of heat to the Chinese readership. It also explores how the Fuzhou Navy Yard’s shipbuilding and training program trained China’s first generation of shipbuilding workers and engineers. It argues that conservatism against technology was not to blame for China’s slow development in steamship building. Rather, it was government officials’ failure to realize the scale of institutional and techno-scientific changes required in importing and disperse new knowledge and skills.
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Keywords
Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
“Historians interested in the history of science will find much important and useful information in Wang’s book on China’s knowledge of Western sciences at the time.” (Bert Becker, Technology and Culture, Vol. 64 (2), April, 2023)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Hsien-ch’un Wang is the associate professor at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. He works on the history of Western science and technology in modern China. He is also interested in how modern technology has played a role in shaping Taiwanese society in the twentieth century.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Western Technology and China’s Industrial Development
Book Subtitle: Steamship Building in Nineteenth-Century China, 1828-1895
Authors: Hsien-ch'un Wang
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59813-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-59903-2Published: 23 April 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-92803-3Published: 24 April 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-59813-4Published: 22 April 2022
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVI, 229
Number of Illustrations: 10 b/w illustrations
Topics: Economic History, Asian History, History of Science, Transportation Technology and Traffic Engineering, History of China, Industrial and Production Engineering