想像未來：台灣人體生物資料庫、基因利基與國族建構

Imagining Futurity: Taiwan Biobank, Taiwanese Genes as a Niche, and Nation-Building

本文以「想像的未來共同體」概念，分析「台灣人體生物資料庫」的建置與發展，指出生命科學及相關科學家對未來社會世界的想像，在國族建構中逐漸扮演重要的角色。首先，本文釐清九○年代台灣逐漸民主化後政府成立的科技溝通平台，成為科學家想像得以實踐的結構化條件。科學家要求國家重視基礎研究對未來全球科學競爭與醫藥產業的影響，以研發創新推動國家知識經濟的轉型目標。其次，本文分析指出，台灣解嚴後追求「台灣主體性」的政治趨勢影響人文社會與自然科學研究，實驗室外以「台灣」為範疇的人群分類想像「內滲」至科學計畫的知識想像，形成「台灣必須建立台灣人自己的實驗室」、「多元族群的台灣獨特基因組成」等論述。台灣人體生物資料庫以具有公民身分的國民人口為招募對象，以及其「台灣人一起努力為下一代台灣人健康」的宣傳，都具有「外溢」的社會作用，形塑台灣人對未來共同體的集體想像與情感。最後，本文指出科學家的想像不是實驗室內「純科學」的操作，科學論述所展現的未來想像與台灣認同政治交纏共構，具有一定的社會政治作用。

This article analyzes the establishment and development of Taiwan Biobank in terms of the concept of an “imagined future community.” We argue that life sciences and social imaginaries of the futurity of scientists have played an increasingly important role in nation-building in the globalization era. First, this article examines the institutional conditions under which scientists’ imaginaries are able to be practiced. Since the democratizing decade of the 1990s, the Taiwanese government has established inter-departmental/inter-ministerial dialogue platforms, where internationally reputed scientists can join in decision-making processes regarding science and technology policy and exercise their influence by promoting innovative basic research of biomedicine, with a view to upgrading the national economy in the globalizing competition of the knowledge economy. Second, the advocacy of the notion of “Taiwanese subjectivity” in politics since the late 1980s has influenced the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. The human classification emphasizing Taiwanese identity (rather than Chinese identity) has shaped the knowledge-making of such scientific projects as Taiwan Biobank, in which the discourses of “Taiwan must have its own laboratory” and “Taiwanese unique genetic composition is characterized by its multiple ethnic origins” prevail. Also, the Taiwan Biobank aims to recruit national citizens and calls on “Taiwanese to work together for a healthy future generation.” This recruitment strategy and discourse, in turn, has the potential to build common imaginaries and emotions of Taiwanese as an imagined future community. Third, we argue that imaginaries of scientists are not purely scientific. The future imaginaries involved in scientific discourses are coproduced with identity politics in Taiwan and have obvious social and political implications.