'Cultural Bonds' in High Technology: Collaborations between Chinese Researchers in Nanotechnology

摘要

Socio-cultural issues have attracted increasing attention from policy makers in high technology. For example, a certain "culture" of high-tech fear, exemplified by Michael Crichton's best-selling novel Prey, seems to have emerged in U.S. In this paper, we examine the cultural dimension of nanotechnology in an alternative way. Specifically, we look at how "cultural bonds" enter into scientific collaborations between ethnic Chinese researchers residing in U.S. and China. In U.S., ethnic Chinese researchers have constituted a large and important workforce. Although collaborations with researchers in China are not geographically convenient, professional journals have published a high number of collaborative studies that involve ethnic Chinese scientists residing in U.S. and China. We analyze the motivations behind such "culturally-based" collaborations. Among other things, new economic benefits are significant incentives for Chinese researchers in the two countries to collaborate with each other. We also discuss the implications of such collaborations in the context of China's modernization and US-China relations.