Born to do science? A case study of family factors in the academic lives of the Chinese scientific elite

Abstract

Primarily based on data collected by the Project for Collecting Historic Data of Scientists’ Academic Life, this paper sets out to analyse the cultural and social role of family factors in the academic lives of three prominent scientists: He Zehui, Wang Shouwu and Wang Shoujue. It was found that, while providing economic support, in the cultural dimension, their family conveyed the idea of saving the nation through science and industry, offered guidance on research career planning and cultivated the concept of feminism; in the social dimension, the three scientists clearly benefited from the academic power and social networks of their family members. This case study of a Chinese scientific family reveals an integration between Western scientific culture and Chinese family culture, and extracts some family factors that have great influence on the academic lives of the scientific elite.