Unearthing the nation: Modern geology and nationalism in republican China, 1911--1949

This dissertation uses the development of modern geology to explore the complex relationship between science and nationalism in Republican China, which spanned the fall of the Qing dynasty (1911) and the establishment of the People's Republic of China (1949). While social commentators of the time could link science and national empowerment in abstract terms, Chinese scientists had to grapple with the practical consequences of using foreign systems based on universal truth claims in service of national goals rooted in local attachments. In particular they faced two ongoing challenges in "saving China" (jiuguo) through science: how to develop "objective," internationally recognized scientific authority without effacing native identity, and how to serve China when "China" was still searching for a stable national form? This dissertation argues that Republican geologists solved these problems by being flexible and inclusive about theories and alliances, but unswerving in their commitment to native control of the Chinese land. Though the Chinese geological community adapted easily to shifting socio-political realities, it only offered allegiance to the territory itself.; Though the chapters of this dissertation follow a roughly chronological order, each one is organized around a problem of geological development tied to the land but conceived and addressed through the imperative of saving the-nation. Chapter 2 opens by asking why Chinese became interested in modern geology at all, and how they began to reconceptualize their homeland as an object of study. Chapter 3 explores the role of fieldwork in grounding the Chinese geological enterprise and reinventing the modern Chinese intellectual. Chapter 4 analyzes Chinese efforts to forge community and participate in international science by establishing the Geological Society of China as a meeting place for competing foreign powers. Chapter 5 looks at how Chinese geologists tried to balance their own ideas of geology to save the nation with the growing demands of the Guomindang state in the "Nanjing Decade" (1927-1937). Chapter 6 examines how the Japanese occupation of China's coastal regions during the War of Resistance narrowed the focus of Chinese geology and set the stage for geologists' post-war disillusionment with the Guomindang.