Doing East Asian STS Is Like Feeling an Elephant, and That Is a Good Thing

East Asian STS is like an elephant whose shape we are trying to determine by touching it in the dark. It appears differently to different investigators. This is a good thing, as is amply demonstrated by the three exciting articles in this forum. The articles display an impressive range and diversity of viewpoints, which is a sign of the intellectual vibrancy of East Asian STS. Still, behind these differences, I think that we can identify two main issues, one concerned with STS theories and the other with “East Asia.” The former is more extensively dealt with in Jia-shin Chen’s and Ruey-Lin Chen’s articles.¹ (The two authors have the same last name. To avoid confusion, I shall use their first names in this paper. All the other authors are cited by their last names.) The latter is the focus of Warwick Anderson’s article. In all three articles, however, the two issues are closely related, and their discussions shed light on both of these fundamental problems in East Asian STS.

In his subtle and nuanced case study, Jia-shin applies Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of assemblages to the HIV harm reduction policy of Taiwan. He convincingly shows that this particular approach works better to explain the case study than does another theory of a similar origin (Latour’s actor network theory, or ANT). The concept of assemblages proves to be a useful perspective on the harm-reduction programs of Taiwan because it better captures the dynamics, ephemerality, and heterogeneity of the ever-changing configuration of science, politics, and culture in Taiwan. The harm-reduction policy necessarily fluctuated and transmuted in the process. The notion of assemblages, with its emphasis on the shifting, amorphous collections of various elements that may or may not maintain temporary stabilities, helpfully highlights the improvisational nature of Taiwan’s harm-reduction policy. Social actors of various backgrounds and expertise drew on ideas and practices from other countries and put together policies and institutions that mutated in relation to the vicissitudes of social and political situations. None of them had decisive control of the process. The harm reduction-policy did not simply travel to Taiwan from other countries, either. Despite its transnational features, the policy took on a different form and content in Taiwan in response to the local environments—including what Jia-shin refers to as the “shallow dish” culture of Taiwan.

Although Jia-shin’s article is mainly about Taiwan and hardly refers to East Asia in general, his case study is suggestive for revealing the complex nature of East Asian STS. It offers a way to think about the tensions between deterritorialization and reterritorialization in situating East Asia in global context. Moreover, it demonstrates the importance of a careful consideration of different conceptual tools or theory-methods packages for particular cases with distinctive characteristics. In his view, the notion of assemblages works better than Latour’s ANT in the case study, and he explains why he thinks so. I appreciate the pragmatic attitude of this approach. Admittedly, the notion of assemblages is more like a concept, a heuristic device, or a perspective than a full-fledged theory. But if it happens to be the best tool—part of a theory-methods package—for the task at hand, why shouldn’t we use it? There is no reason to prefer an elaborate but cumbersome theory when a simple conceptual tool will do. There is also no reason to assume that existing concepts or theories developed elsewhere won’t work well in certain cases of East Asian STS. If an existing theory or approach is effective, it makes good sense to use it. If it is sufficient, then there is no strong need to invent another concept or theory. This is an eminently sensible position. What if, however, the existing theories are not enough? What if they do not satisfy the intellectual needs of East Asian STS—either because they cannot adequately take into account the distinctive characteristics of a particular social and political situation or because they have not...