What began as a simple question, in conversation with Ben Elman this past May, about when Kuhn's Structure was translated into Chinese and by whom, has turned into a complex historiography of the history and philosophy of science in East Asia. Not only has Kuhn's work shaped in part the development of the history of science, the philosophy of science, and STS disciplines in East Asia, but also East Asian scholars have been personally engaged with Kuhn throughout his career, influencing the revision of Structure as much as being influenced in turn by him (see esp. Nakayama 2007: 49-53). Indeed, as historians of science in the United States and Europe gather essays for a fifty-year retrospective about Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,' historians of science across East Asia are doing the same.
