Asian Biotech

“Asian Biotech…offers readers a variety of methods and conclusions…[which] yield some provocative and original theoretical work.” - Mara Mills, Women's Studies Quarterly

“Wonderfully suggestive in its breadth and scope, Asian Biotech ultimately serves as a much-needed introductory effort, and should prove to be of enormous interest to scholars of STS, as well as those working on any aspect of contemporary Asia. It will no doubt prove influential to subsequent scholarship appearing in the related fields of globalization and the life sciences, especially as other nations situated outside the traditional scientific centers continue to desire participation in these new types of economic and bio-ventures.” - John P. DiMoia, Theory, Culture & Society

“The need in science studies and anthropology for Asian Biotech would be hard to overstate. I was hungry for this book to use in my own teaching and writing, and the meal is as satisfying as I had anticipated. The theoretical framing is astute and generative, and the well-argued and diverse essays are thoroughly fleshed out historically and ethnographically. Nancy N. Chen, Aihwa Ong, and the contributors deserve our thanks. We have just run out of excuses for ongoing Western parochialism in science and technology studies and all of our kindred inquiries into biotechnology.” - Donna Haraway, author of When Species Meet

“This exciting collection of ethnographic essays introduces readers to the deployment of specific biotechnologies in Asia, revealing their enmeshment with local and global politics and a situated ethics that extends to the good of families, communities, and nations, and not merely that of individuals. This book, harbinger of impending futures, demands introspection.” - Margaret Lock, author of Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death

”This is the first broad anthropological examination of the biotech movement across Asia. Especially useful are the efforts at understanding how biotechnology affects (and is affected by) major changes in moral experience and ethical imagination that are roiling Asian modernities. A pathbreaking exploration! This collection will be influential.” - Arthur Kleinman, Director, Asia Center, Harvard University

“Asian Biotech is a thoughtful examination of Asia’s biotechnology development. The call to understand this realm in terms of situated ethics and communities of fate is persuasive and invites the analysis of more cases to test the robustness of these concepts.” - Wen-Hua Kuo, The China Quarterly

“[T]his book performs coverage of a region and a complicated sector of the twenty-frst-century economy, and it will certainly prove useful to those interested in globalized medicine and the fast-changing norms regulating research in biomedicine.” - Thomas Cannavino, Cultural Critique

“What bioethicists could learn from anthropological investigations like those presented in this volume is that one should consider the social and cultural contexts in which the practice to be ethically assessed is embedded in order to understand the the practice more thoroughly. And it is this more thorough understanding which will lead to a more nuanced and better refined ethical judgment.” - Soraj Hongladarom, Genomics, Society and Policy

“I for one would strongly recommend this interesting volume to anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of biotech in Asia.” - Krishna Ravi Srinivas, Asian Biotech and Development Review

“This timely and important collection by science-studies scholars provides fascinating glimpses into the ambitious efforts of several Asian countries to deploy biotechnologies to both generate economic growth and provide biosecurity in this age of global science and technology.” - Doogab Yi, Chemical Heritage