Amateur Science in China, By Reginald Smith

Amateur Science in China
By Reginald Smith


There are several wonderful things about science from the viewpoint of an investigator. Indeed, one of the great benefits of being an amateur scientist is the simple fact that anyone and everyone can do science. Another important aspect of science is that it transcends all boundaries between people. People of all walks of life, incomes, ethnic groups, nationalities, etc. can come together and find commonalities through science. However, sometimes normal barriers of communication such as language and awareness can keep like-minded groups separate.

In particular, this article will focus on some of the efforts at amateur science currently going on in the world’s most populous country, China. It seems these days China is everywhere in the news media. Its rapid economic growth and growing clout make it an essential destination for businesses and investors. On the science front, China is also not standing still. China graduates more engineers than the US each year, though less on a per capita basis. The exact number of Chinese engineers is debated since some studies include two-year certifications and technical training schools in the statistics along with recipients of BS degrees. The key point, however, is that interest in science is also rapidly growing in China.

When I started studying Chinese, I would read internet news articles to practice my characters. Later, I actively looked for information on amateur scientists in the Chinese press. It is difficult to gauge exactly how prevalent amateur science is in China. Even with the Society of Amateur Scientists, it is difficult to gauge how many amateur scientists are in the US and there is no like-minded sister organization formed in China yet. There are, however, several resources and people I met that shed some light on the issue.

First, I met Dr. Song Tian, a professor at Beijing Normal University. Dr. Tian received his Ph.D in both the history of science and the philosophy of science. He also did postdoctoral work at the extremely prestigious Beijing University where he was associated with the Center for Science Communication which studies popular viewpoints on science and science’s relationship to society. Dr. Tian has researched public viewpoints of science in China and this led to him writing several papers on amateur science movements in China. In particular he distinguishes two kinds of public science. Roughly they translate to science fans and true amateur scientists. In a paper I translated that has been submitted to the journal Public Understanding of Science he states:

“Tian (2000a) coined the term “science fans” to refer to a peculiar crowd who want to do so-called scientific research outside of the scientific community. They attempt to solve certain grand scientific questions, attempt to overthrow certain well-established scientific theories, or are devoted to establishing grand types of theoretical systems. However, they do not accept or understand the scientific community’s basic paradigms of knowledge and therefore cannot have a basic communication with the scientific community. In general, their work does not possess scientific sense or value….The terms science fan and amateur scientist stem from necessity of differentiation. On the surface, science fans and this other group have many similarities. Amateur scientists also are not professional scientists, also like to engage in scientific activities in their free time, and even have some obstinate people, but they accept the paradigms of the scientific community. They are also capable of engaging in progressive exchanges with the scientific community, and simultaneously are capable of creating some valuable scientific research. These people could be called true amateur scientists.”

Specifically, Dr. Tian has become concerned that there are many people who claim amateur science’s banner but do not understand science. It was interesting to see that China, like the West has hundreds of people and websites that claim they can “disprove” the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, or solve difficult mathematical theories like Goldbach’s Conjecture*. He supports amateur science when people take the time and effort to really understand science and engage in thoughtful research. Happily, there are increasing amounts of amateur scientists in China that fit this mold.

There are many popular science magazines in Chinese. While in Beijing I enjoyed one called The Mystery of Science (Kexue zhi mi). A popular magazine on scientific topics. Also on the web I found Thoughts on Science (Sansi kexue zazhi). An online magazine at (http://www.oursci.org). In particular it focuses on many of the amateur aspects of science with links to many amateur science clubs in China.

From the links I have found, most amateur science in China, like elsewhere is firmly in the astronomy camp. Websites such as the Sirius Astronomy Page (http://www.dogstar.net/), the Public Astronomy Website (http://www.asci.cn/), and China Astronomy (http://chinaastronomy.com.cn/) directly cater to amateur astronomers through news articles and forums where people can discuss techniques, findings, or just get together. In fact, this will likely be a growing area for amateur science in China. Interest in space has boomed among Chinese since China launched its two manned spaceships Shenzhou 5 and 6 over the last few years and an amateur astronomer, Zhang Daqing, who discovered a comet.

There are also specialized web pages and societies for different interests. For example, paleontology and fossil hunting has found a popular science page of sorts on China Fossil Net (http://www.fossil.org.cn). However, when I tried to reach this page it tried to infect my computer with a Trojan so maybe it’s not good to check it out for the time being…
At China Insect Fans (http://www.insect-fans.com/) you can research in detail your favorite insects, discuss the insects in an extensive forum and even buy official Insect Fans tee shirts. Amateur robotics fans write interesting technical articles as well as discuss robots in the two great sites (http://www.roboticfan.com) and (http://www.robotdiy.com). Finally, who could forget ham radio which has a rapidly growing population of hams now it has been legal for some time. Many sites like QRZ (http://www.qrz.cn/home/) provide an excellent summary of resources in this area.

These interest specific groups are what China currently has lacking a general amateur science organization. There is an organization called “The World’s Strangers” (Tiandi Shengren) (http://www.tdsrjz.org/index.html) who emphasizes amateur science though they take on controversial ideas such as “second thoughts on relativity.”

China’s amateur science scene is still small but will definitely grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years. Perhaps one day an SAS like organization will emerge in China or SAS could spread to China!

* Goldbach’s Conjecture is a famous unsolved problem in number theory. In 1742 the Prussian mathematician Christian Goldbach wrote legendary mathematician Leonhard Euler with the following conjecture “Every even integer greater than 2 can be written as the sum of three primes.” Euler later restated it as “Every even integer greater than 4 can be expressed as the sum of two primes.” Euler did this so 1 does not have to be considered a prime number (source: Mathworld; mathworld.wolfram.com).