China’s Nobel complex overrated, but scientific tide may yet turn

Source:Global Times Published: 2014-10-23 19:03:01

Huang Xiaoyong and Pan Chenguang, Nobel Prize?, China Social Sciences Press, October 2014



When would a resident of the Chinese mainland gain the Nobel Prize? This question had stuck in the minds of Chinese people for almost 30 years until the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Mo Yan, a Chinese novelist and short story writer in 2012.

Even after Mo's win, people in China still feel unsatisfied because the evaluation criteria and the political influence of Mo's winning were controversial. Many see the Nobel Prize in the sciences as much more objective. Unfortunately, no mainland resident has yet won a Nobel Prize in the sciences.

China's economic and social development has become increasingly prominent, but while four ethnic Chinese born on the mainland have won Nobel Prizes in the sciences, it has always been for work done in the West.

The Chinese people's ambivalent attitude is called the "Nobel complex" by Huang Xiaoyong, dean of the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Pan Chenguang, a research fellow at Rural Development Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in their newly published book Nobel Prize?.

China's "Nobel complex" is closely related to the famous "Needham Question" asked by Sinologist Joseph Needham, about why China was overtaken by the West in science and technology, despite its earlier successes.

But the book holds that the "Needham Question" itself is problematic, because it is better to study why modern sciences were born in the West, than why they were not born in China.

The book compares the technology development process of China and the US, and finds that the US has spent much time in improving its scientific research system, while China's efforts have not accumulated as much as the US. It's still too early for us to expect a harvest.

The authors also find that doubts, questions and even boycotts have haunted the Nobel Prize since its birth. However, information in this regard has been marginalized by the vast amounts of information brought by the "Nobel complex" in China.

To some extent, the book believes that the Nobel Prize is just a symbol produced by the interaction and even power game between governments, media, institutions and the public. Therefore, China needs a process of de-deifying this prize.

At the same time, the book says that de-deifying the Nobel Prize does not mean ignoring the drawbacks existing in China's research system.

Currently, management-oriented and market-oriented tendency in China's scientific research lead to the lack of basic input or practical actions.

The authors point out that innovations in scientific fields cannot be simply achieved through executive management. Only by creating a healthy environment for researchers can scientific research be pragmatic.

This day, the book believes, will come soon. By that time, Chinese people will no longer be complacent about one Nobel winner, instead, the happiness brought by the sciences will be attached much more attention.

Then there may be a new version of the "Needham Question." People may be wondering why science is developing in China rather than elsewhere. 

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