Postcolonial Biotech: Taiwanese Conundrums and Subimperial Desires. Issue 4 (1st December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Jennifer A.
• Is Part Of: East Asian science, technology and society. Volume 11:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 563
• Page End: 588
• Publication Date: 2017-12-01
• Subjects: biotech -- Taiwan -- postcolonial -- subimperial -- Indigenous genetics; Science -- East Asia -- Periodicals; Technology -- East Asia -- Periodicals; Science; Technology; East Asia; Periodicals; 306.46095
• DOI: 10.1215/18752160-4152424
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1875-2160

Abstract

Abstract : Where most accounts of biotech in Taiwan—indeed, globally—focus on its economic potential and its potential to heal various ills, a postcolonial and subimperial framing insists on attention to often underexamined aspects, for example, how biotech practices reflect specific nationalist desires and rely on forms of exploitation. A postcolonial and subimperial framing insists on the inclusion of other stories. Drawing Taiwan's nanxiang (southward) policies and Indigenous rights into a biotech frame, I suggest that such policies and desires create potential contradictions that are not easily resolved. For example, hard-won policies preventing the collection of Indigenous genetic samples may foreclose studies that might address pronounced health disparities. And the scope of a national biobank project aimed toward a global Chinese ethnic community is limited by competing claims of Taiwanese genetic uniqueness. One possible resolution envisions Taiwan biotech as a site for imagining possible futures outside enduring colonial influences and subimperial desires.