Building Molecules out of Characters: The Development of Organic Chemistry Nomenclature in China, 1850–1920

“Building Molecules out of Characters” examines the development of organic chemistry in China not just as a linguistic product, but as a Chinese response to the global trend of scientific language standardization. Chinese chemists in their creation of organic chemistry terms also expressed anxieties of Chinese state formation and the implementation of modern Chinese society. The nomenclature contains not just chemical nomenclature and structure, but also each trained chemist's own personal experience and a growing sense of nationalism in the early twentieth century. The creation of organic chemistry nomenclature not as a response to European nomenclature, but as a nomenclature that solved a looming question within the global chemistry community – how to create a system of naming that clearly expressed organic chemistry structure? Through this particular methodology of repurposing Chinese characters and the invention of new characters, Chinese chemists were able to participate not only on a global scale, but also fulfill the need for science education within a Chinese language context. My use of ‘modern’ is less about passing judgment on early twentieth century China and instead using the terminology that permeated the spaces the Chinese chemists would have existed in. I will examine not just the chemists' nomenclature but the political and educational environment in which they would have been trained in order to understand their linguistic choices. Through this process, I will show the practicality of having cohesive Chinese nomenclature and how personal experience, tied with political rhetoric, ultimately formed the system still used in China today.