Biography:

Dr. Haiyan Yang is an associate professor in the Department of Medical Humanities at Peking University and is currently a visiting scholar (through July 2009) in the Department of History and Philosophy (HPS) at the University of Cambridge. With an educational background first in biology and subsequently in the history and philosophy of science, her research focus on history of biology (especially intellectual history and social history of evolutionism), medical humanities, and scientific communication. Her publication includes various articles, such as Inquiry into the Meaning of Evolution, Non-Darwinian Revolution and the Idea of Progress, The Central Question of the Controversies between Gould and Dawkins, The Humanistic Spirit in Medicine, Population Health and the Relational Conceptions of Justice. At present, she is working on two major projects. The first one is a book on the relation of evolution and progress, with the case of Robert Chambers Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation and its reception. The second one is Darwin Now Network between the Department of HPS at Cambridge and the Department of Philosophy at Peking University, aiming to establish a long-term network of communication and collaboration investigating the global spread of Darwinism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, focused particularly on the problem of human evolution

Abstract:

Encountering Darwin and Creating Darwinism: the Chinese Case

The year of 2009 marks Charles Darwin as a global brand. Just like a strong white light turned into colorful beams through a prism, Darwin presents multiple images. Those different, even contradictory, images indicates that there are various encountering contexts and consequently various understandings and appropriations of Darwin. This paper will investigate the Chinese case as one of those possibilities. The official image of Darwin in the new China is triple: modest and diligent scientist, great materialist, and brave atheist. Yet during the first introduction and appropriation of Darwin and Evolution in China at the turn of the twentieth century, the three labels mentioned above had been barely recognized. At that time, China lacked the role of a professional scientist and learning had not been categorized into separate subjects. With the long tradition of idealism in Chinese intellectual life and with few religious issues to contend with, Darwins image was able to be rather indefinite and flexible. The overwhelming concerns about the problem of human evolution and social evolution shaped the first translation, interpretation, revision, and distortion of evolutionary works. But this state of flexibility and vagueness dissolved gradually with the rise of Marxism and the foundation of the new China. I will illustrate how the currency of Darwinism when initially created was widespread, vibrant, and flexible, and then how over time it was solidified with the changes in intellectual, social and political climates.