Christine Y L Luk | Tsinghua University (original) (raw)

Uploads

Books by Christine Y L Luk

This book gives a concise history of biophysics in contemporary China, from about 1949 to 1976. I... more This book gives a concise history of biophysics in contemporary China, from about 1949 to 1976. It outlines how a science specialty evolved from an ambiguous and amorphous field into a fully-fledged academic discipline in the socio-institutional contexts of contemporary China. The book relates how, while initially consisting of cell biologists, the Chinese biophysics community redirected their disciplinary priorities toward rocket science in the late 1950s to accommodate the national interests of the time. Biophysicists who had worked on biological sounding rockets were drawn to the military sector and continued to contribute to human spaceflight in post-Mao China. Besides the rocket-and-space missions which provided the material context for biophysics to expand in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Chinese biophysicists also created research and educational programs surrounding biophysics by exploiting the institutional opportunities afforded by the policy emphasis on science's role to drive modernization. The book explores and demonstrates the collective achievements and struggles of Chinese biophysicists in building their scientific discipline.

Papers by Christine Y L Luk

Why Study Biology by the Sea? , 2020

Radiobiology assesses the biological hazards of exposure to radioactive substances and nuclear ra... more Radiobiology assesses the biological hazards of exposure to radioactive substances and nuclear radiation. This article explores the history of radiobiology in twentieth-century China by examining the overlapping of radium research and biophysics, from roughly the 1920s Nationalist period to the 1960s Communist period; from the foreign purchase of radium by the Rockefeller Foundation’s China Medical Board during the Republican era, to the institutional establishment of radiobiology as a subset of biophysics in the People’s Republic. Western histori- ography of radiobiology highlights the connection between the military develop- ment of nuclear weapons and the civilian use of radiation in biology, as well as the international export of radioisotopes and nuclear reactors. Considering the exclusion of China from Western atomic diplomacy, I argue that the study of the Chinese history of bomb-making and radiobiology is necessary not just to fill an existing knowledge gap, but more importantly to elucidate the influence of the Chinese nuclear weapons program and Cold War atomic politics on Chinese life-science enterprises. Through examining the formational history of the radiobiology program in China, I hope to shed light on the implications of the atomic age for Chinese biology in the twentieth century.

There is a tendency to view China’s space efforts as a mere replication of what the US and the fo... more There is a tendency to view China’s space efforts as a mere replication of what the US and the former USSR accomplished decades ago. References to a “second Space Race” and “space militarization” abound in the press these days. But if we take a step back and look at China’s space program from a historical perspective, we can see that China’s space endeavors not only have a distinct trajectory, they are also driven by a different set of motivations. China’s biological experimentation in space behooves us to move away from the bi-polar Cold War narratives to one more in keeping with our multi-polar world.

Making space for engineering education: the South China Institute of Engineering, Nov 2, 2016

This article examines the spatial history of an important engineer- ing school during the Republi... more This article examines the spatial history of an important engineer- ing school during the Republican-Communist transitional years in modern China. I argue that studying the spatiality of engineering education in twentieth-century China is important for two reasons. First, the development of engineering education is a pedagogical priority for both the Nationalist and the Communist Parties, as engi- neering has dominated the ways in which modern Chinese lead- ership envisioned the world and the training of many of its most important leaders. Second, the spatial culture of engineering is a technique of power through which the relationship between tech- nical and nontechnical dimensions of engineering practices can be discerned. Drawing from local newspapers, biographies of architects, art and architectural history, and campus publications, the available evidence suggests that while the campus buildings of Zhongshan University during the Republican era exhibit a Canton-specific Ling- nan architectural style, such regional characteristic was absent in the newly constructed buildings at the South China Institute of Engi- neering, of which Zhongshan University was a constituent college during the early Communist era. In addition to the exterior aes- thetic style, I also analyze the interior spatial arrangement of SCIE, where the boundary between teaching venues, experimental sites, and industrial shops was not sharply drawn in Communist China, which highlights the eradication of hierarchy among teachers, stu- dents, and workers. The spatial history of an engineering school in South China reveals how the efforts to provide space for engineering education reflect a changing geopolitical order in twentieth-century China.

Biotech in Hong Kong: How Biologist-Entrepreneurs Pursued "Hong Kong's Bioscience Dream", 2016

This article aims to put Hong Kong on the map of East Asia’s biotech studies by identifying the m... more This article aims to put Hong Kong on the map of East Asia’s biotech studies by identifying the major themes of biotech innovation specific to the city-state’s colonial past and postcolonial present and future. I provide evidence of a concerted effort led by biologist-entrepreneurs to promote the biotech industry in postcolonial Hong Kong. Through assessing scientific literature, media representations, business strategies, and programmatic visions of key scientist-entrepreneurs in Hong Kong’s biotech enterprise, I highlight how factors such as local history and geo-political considerations shape the emerging “Hong Kong’s bioscience dream.” Using the recent discovery of a new recombinant anticancer drug, pegylated human recombinant arginase (BCT-100) as a case in point, I explore how biotech research and application are marketed and interpreted in relation to Hong Kong’s unique historical, political, and cultural context, thus making it distinct from other Asian Tigers. My analysis of the featured recombinant drug reveals a set of uniquely Hong Kong-centered cultural meanings attributed to biopharmaceutical research and benefits. This case reflects how genetic engineering and biotech research are configured and imagined within the context of the post-colonial Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Page 1. Gender, graduate education experience and career-related choices: The case of doctoral st... more Page 1. Gender, graduate education experience and career-related choices: The case of doctoral students in science and engineering in Hong Kong Christine Yi Lai LUK MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG August 2008 Page 2. ...

Biophysics has been either an independent discipline or an element of another discipline in the U... more Biophysics has been either an independent discipline or an element of another discipline in the United States, but it has always been recognized as a stand-alone discipline in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since 1949. To inquire into this apparent divergence, this paper investigates the formational history of biophysics in China by examining the early institutional history of one of the best-known and prestigious science and technology universities in the PRC, the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). By showing how the university and its biophysics program co-evolved with national priorities from the school’s founding in 1958 to the eve of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, the purpose of this paper is to assess the development of a scientific discipline in the context of national demands and institutional politics. Specific materials for analysis include the school’s admission policies, curricula, students’ dissertations, and research program. To further contextualize the institutional setting of Chinese biophysics, this paper begins with a general history of proto-biophysical institutions in China during the Nationalist-Communist transitional years. This paper could be of interest to historians wanting to know more about the origin of the biophysics profession in China, and in particular how research areas that constitute biophysics changed in tandem with socio-political contingencies.

Biophysics, the topic of Christine Luk’s dissertation, is a fluid discipline, “defined by doing,”... more Biophysics, the topic of Christine Luk’s dissertation, is a fluid discipline, “defined by doing,” i.e., understood by each practitioner as what she is working on. Luk compares the formation and social position of biophysics in the People’s Republic of China with the case in the United States and notes the varying content and context of the discipline with the same name.

Women in Engineering and Technology Research: The PROMETEA Conference Proceedings, 2010

This study compares and contrasts the career aspirations of male and female doctoral students in ... more This study compares and contrasts the career aspirations of male and female doctoral students in engineering and technology disciplines in Hong Kong. The purpose is to get a better understanding of what contributes to the persistent under-representation of women in engineering and technology, an area of social, economic, and epistemological significance, both locally and globally. The primary data collection method was by way of face-to-face, unstructured interviews. The pipeline leakage model is employed to conceptualize the research problem.

《中国技术哲学年鉴》(Research Yearbook of Philosophy of Technology in China (2010-2011) , Oct 2012

在围绕纳米技术等新兴技术（emerging technologies）的政策对话中，公众“上游参与（upstream engagement）”以及技术的社会控制的其他一些方法正在受到国际性关注。... more 在围绕纳米技术等新兴技术（emerging technologies）的政策对话中，公众“上游参与（upstream engagement）”以及技术的社会控制的其他一些方法正在受到国际性关注。在一定范围内，这些方法对于研发活动具有一定的意义，它们需要科学家和工程师们的不同参与方式。然而，科技专家们扩大其对研发活动影响的能力，意味着他们是以一种不同的方式在从事着研发活动。本文探讨了在技术发展的内部治理中，科学家和工程师们开展更具反思性的参与方式的可能性。本文回顾了历史上治理科学技术的多种尝试，并引入中游调节（midstream modulation）这一概念。通过中游调节，科学家和工程师们能够很好地与其他群体合作，将社会因素引入其工作之中。

Book Reviews by Christine Y L Luk

Review of Sigrid Schmalzer's "Red Revolution, Green Revolution" (UChicago Press, 2016)

Building Biophysics in China, Apr 12, 2016

reviewed by Howard H. H. Chiang