During the 1860s, industrialization movements arose independently in China and Japan, while new iron- and steelmaking processes began to be transferred from the West to East Asia. Despite their similar beginnings, the fates of those two countries* industries were very different after decades of development: China's iron industry was almost destroyed with the closure of the Hanychping Company in the 1930s, while at the same time Japan's played an important role during the successful industrialization process from the Meiji Period on, becoming the economic foundation for the invasion of Japan's neighbors. What then had happened in these two countries? Yi-bing Fang's 2013 book, The History of Iron and Steel Technology in Modern China and Japan, 1868-1933: A Comparative Study (in Prof. Baichun Zhang's History of Technology Transfer and Innovation series), has given us excellent insight into the transfer of modern technology in East Asia almost a century ago. Fang, pointing out how useful this particular example will prove in studying technological modernization in the region, states in the preface that it "will supply us with a good case for further discussion of the different characters of technical and industrial modemization in China and Japan, through detailed research and a comparison of the history of technology transfer and development in the two countries" (2).
