Science with Boundaries: Yang Zhongjian and Vertebrate Paleontology in Republican China, 1919–1950

Abstract The rapid development of paleontology–especially vertebrate paleontology and dinosaurology–has made ‘Chinese Paleontology’ an important subfield of paleontology since the 1990s, resulting in China becoming a powerhouse of paleontological research. This chapter focuses on YANG Zhongjiang (1897–1979), often celebrated as the father of Chinese vertebrate paleontology, to examine how the field of his specialty was established and developed as a scientific discipline in his country. It traces Yang’s early academic experience from a geology major at Peking University in the early 1920s to his graduate years in Germany under the famous paleontologist Ferdinand Broili. Yang’s professional study and training was strengthened by his rich field experience after returning to China in the late 1920s. He participated not only in the joint Sino-American Central Asiatic Expedition to Mongolia in 1930, but also in the extensive excavation project of the Peking Man fossils conducted by the Cenozoic Research Laboratory. His more independent work took place during the Second Sino-Japanese War, when he discovered, studied, and constructed China’s first complete dinosaur fossils (the Lufengosaurus). Besides describing the making of a professional paleontologist in China in the first half of the 20th century, this chapter also illuminates questions that are intrinsic to the development of scientific disciplines at a time when the rise of Chinese nationalism intersected with scientific internationalism and imperialism. How did the academic practice of paleontology reflect unequal political realities? Is paleontology a ‘local science’? Could the endeavor for ‘local science’ empower scientists from developing nations?