Abstract
Since the Reform and Opening-up in 1978, science and technology research has long been regarded as an engine for China’s modernisation. Comparatively, humanities and social sciences (HSS) research has been overlooked in national policy for a long period. Although China’s science and technology research has gained global prominence, its HSS research remains less visible in the world. This article reviews the policy trajectory of internationalising Chinese HSS research from 1978 to 2020. It identifies changing and unchanged tensions along the policy trajectory, explores the dynamics between the internationalisation and indigenisation (‘Chinalisation’) of HSS, and reveals a hybridisation of ideological openness and vigilance in Chinese HSS research. Based on the examination of those tensions, this article discusses the shifted power paradigm in Chinese HSS, the connotation and challenges of ‘Chinalisation’, and the tensions between national policies, institutional implementation and individual practices.
Highlights
Since the Reform and Opening-up in 1978, the past four decades have witnessed a rapid development of China’s science and technology field
By analysing national policies in the past four decades, this study reveals the changing and unchanged tensions in internationalising Chinese humanities and social sciences (HSS) research
The positioning of HSS has been evolved and coupled with growing policy attention, and the internationalisation approach has transformed from one-way ‘bringing-in’ to reciprocal ‘going-out’
Summary
Since the Reform and Opening-up in 1978, the past four decades have witnessed a rapid development of China’s science and technology field. The openness of global research systems, together with the depoliticisation and internationalisation policies of science, have facilitated the accelerated development of China’s science and technology field (Marginson, 2018). In contrast to the globally eminent status of science and technology, China’s humanities and social sciences (HSS) research remains largely invisible in the world. The Chinese government and universities have attempted to enhance the global status of its HSS research, the inter nationalisation of HSS presents more ideological, cultural, social, his torical and linguistic complexity than that of science and technology (Xu, 2020b). As a result of the differences between HSS and sciences and technology disciplines, the internationalisation of HSS could not merely follow the same path as that of sciences and technology. On the basis of the historical and docu mentary analysis of national policies from 1978 to 2020, this article traces the trajectory of national policies to internationalise HSS in China, and examines tensions arising from the internationalisation process
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