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- Convenors:
-
Tsung-Jen Hung
(University of Sydney)
Po-Hsun Chen (University of Manchester, UK.)
Jean Tzu-Yin Chou (University of Glasgow)
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- Format:
- Traditional Open Panel
Short Abstract:
The process of bringing medicine or vaccines to the market necessitates rigorous clinical trials on animals and some animals’ sufferings matter than others’. We invite submissions focusing on the historical relationship between animals in clinical trials and the formation of national identities.
Long Abstract:
The process of bringing medicine or vaccines to the market necessitates rigorous clinical trials, often conducted on animals. These trials operate on the premise that animal suffering precedes human experimentation, with the sacrifice of these animals legitimizing the subsequent medical interventions. Clinical trials relegate animal suffering to statistical figures in scientific discourse, emphasizing a rational analysis. Yet, all animals suffer, but some animals’ sufferings matter than others’. For instance, the French government has imposed mandatory bird flu vaccination on only ducks instead of chicken, despite the fact that the virus affects both. In contrast, Indonesia exclusively mandates chicken bird-flu vaccination and conducts clinical trials solely on chickens. In the Indian context, typified by the Panchgavya tradition, the cow assumes a revered status, being ascribed a plethora of health benefits and medicinal properties and funded by the government.
This panel seeks to explore the historical and cultural underpinnings of these hierarchical distinctions in the context of clinical trials and their role in the construction of nationalist medicines. This panel also aims to convene scholars engaged in the historical study of animals involvement in clinical trials, and the ways in which scientific research manifests distinct aspirations and expectations concerning specific animal subjects. We invite submissions focusing on the historical relationship between animals in clinical trials and the formation of national identities, as well as contributions exploring the intersection of animals and nationhood in various contexts of scientific inquiry.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Po-Hsun Chen (University of Manchester, UK.)
Long abstract:
In the 1970s, along with the rapprochement of the People’s Republic of China, U.S. President Richard Nixon’s China visit triggered a keen interest in Chinese medicine in the West. The world’s attention to China’s acupuncture anaesthesia stimulated the Kuomintang (KMT) government to emphasise Chinese medicine intensively in Taiwan. Apart from the human-centred history of acupuncture in the US-China relationship, this article argues that acupuncture experiment animals, Formosan macaque, empowered the Taiwanese government in constructing nationhood and pursuing the scientisation of Chinese medicine in the Cold War period. Through the theoretical lens of sociotechnical imaginaries, those monkeys were critical non-human actors in coproducing the KMT government’s imaginaries of modernity and orthodox China.
In the anti-communism milieu, the popularity of China’s acupuncture anaesthesia demonstrated the progress of technology in China but also assaulted the image of the orthodoxy of Chinese Culture that KMT claimed in Taiwan. In 1973, the Department of Health and National Council on Science Development announced multi-centre medical research on acupuncture. Taiwanese government also recruited a Chinese-born neuroscientist, Ha Hong-Chien (1924-2010), from the Pennsylvania State University to conduct acupuncture research by neurophysiology. He conducted acupuncture research with the animal Formosan macaque. During the industrial toxicants PCBs poisoning event in the early 1980s, this animal model was applied to Chinese medical therapy projects for PCBs poisonings and validated promising outcomes of Chinese medicine. Namely, these experiments monkeys played vital roles in not only convincing more biomedical experts but also propagating the KMT’s authenticity over traditional Chinese legacies worldwide.
Jean Tzu-Yin Chou (University of Glasgow)
Long abstract:
Existing research regards Biopolis in Singapore as one of the most successful models for national-centralised and governmentally-funded biomedical science centres across Asian countries. The success of Biopolis has been advantaged by Singaporean economic-political typology and its geo-ecological location. Scholars including Aihwa Ong, Michael Fisher, Michiel van Meeteren, et al. have debated Biopolis’ uniqueness as an Asian model of biomedical science centres with comparisons to other biomedical centres and/or industrial clusters in United Kingdom and at San Francisco and Boston in the United States.
Although the political sentiment of Singapore is often regarded as less liberal than countries like the U.S. and U.K., and although numerous political scientists consider Singapore a democratic authoritarian state, regulations of pharma-manufacturing in Singapore are surprisingly less stringent regarding animal experimental ethical integrity. Besides, the centralised-controlled and state-funded features of Biopolis are somewhat attractive for biopharma companies because these facilitate the application process to the government of using germfree and gnotobiotic mice in in vivo experiments for clinical trials of manufacturing medicine, especially after Biopolis' industrial alignment shifts in 2010 led by Singaporean government and after the establishment of Germeree Mouse Unit (GMU) in 2022. Today, GMU is one of the world's largest biological resource centres, allegedly breeding about 250,000 mice in Biopolis.
This research examines GMU to scrutinise the establishment of Singaporean nationhood and its geo-political ties to East and Southeast Asian countries at both private sectors and governmental levels with its means to the supplement of germfree and gnotobiotic mice for in vivo experiments.
Tsung-Jen Hung (University of Sydney)
Short abstract:
This study aims to delve into how the entanglement of geopolitical tensions and postcolonial struggles during avian flu crisis in Indonesia reformulate the humans-chickens-medicinal plant relationships and how chickens become the subject of nationalists imagination.
Long abstract:
Jamu, traditional Javanese elixirs used in treating illnesses and enhancing beauty, has predominantly been a subject of cultural and scientific inquiry concerning its human applications. However, the burgeoning interest in utilizing jamu for poultry, particularly chickens, has gained momentum since 2007. This heightened curiosity regarding jamu's effects on chickens is not happenstance. The pivotal year of 2007 marked the onset of waves avian flu crisis in Indonesia, prompting governmental prioritization of on vaccines productions and even traditional medicine promotion. Moreover, a specific medicinal plant, hailed as the "Ginseng of Indonesia," garnered attention from scientists, entrepreneurs, and nationalists. This particular nationalized medical plant, integrated into jamu intended for chickens, underwent clinical trials, culminating in an award for innovation in 2015.
This study aims to delve into how the entanglement of geopolitical tensions and postcolonial struggles reformulate the humans-chickens-medicinal plant relationships and how chickens, or more specifically hens, become the subject of nationalists imagination. It also endeavors to confer agency to scientists, portraying them not merely as instruments of scientific nationalism but as proactive researchers. Their pursuits, aligning with escalating postcolonial tensions, co-produce scientific research and nationalist aspirations, which can only be substantiated and imagined through the suffering bodies of chickens.
En-Chieh Chao (National Sun Yat-Sen University)
Long abstract:
This paper examines media reports on Indonesian COVID vaccines Merah Putih and IndoVac, focusing on the emergence of "halal nationalism." It explores the shift from allowing non-halal vaccines based on dire necessity to the increasing demand for halal options, evident in parental preferences and promotion of IndoVac and Merah Putih. Investigating the necessity and appeal of halal vaccines, the paper analyzes social, political, religious, and technological factors driving their rise amid the pandemic. I trace the halalization of vaccines pre-COVID, particularly controversies over ingredients in the manufacturing process of polio and meningitis vaccines in the 2000s and 2010s. Next, I discuss the development of the pentavalent vaccine and its halal status promotion, the discourse of which finally culminated in Merah Putih and IndoVac in 2022 and 2023. Analyzing news reports, this study demonstrates how vaccines have become a focal point reflecting the intersection of Islamic doctrines, biomedical nationalism, and scientific discourse.