近代中國標準化的推動──英美工程師組織與中國本土的跨國網絡，1901-1941

"Promoting Standardization in Modern China: British and American Engineer Organisations, Local Chinese Engineers, and Their Transnational Networks, 1901-1941"

「標準化」（Standardization）為歐洲第二波工業革命以後的產物，奠基於標準化零件可相互轉換的便利性，使得近代工廠得以操作大量生產方式，其結果改變了近代生產方式和工業化社會的基本特徵，並影響及於國際經貿活動的內容和全球跨國技術的移轉。本文探討具有現代工程和科學化意義的標準化概念，在二十世紀初期如何通過英、美工程師組織和中國本土的跨國網絡在中國的引介、傳遞和推動，以呈現此一具有全球意義的標準化過程及其效應在中國的發展途徑和圖象。過去的研究鮮少注意到標準化在中國的傳播、跨國工程界的網絡和國家治理的聯繫作用，本文希望填補此一缺漏。二十世紀初，由英國工程師所主導的「上海工程會」（Engineering Society of China）最早在上海租界倡議「標準化」。一戰後，由中美兩國工程師組成的「中美工程師協會」（The Association of Chinese and American Engineers）與北京政府交通部的合作，初步施行於鐵路標準化等基礎建設。到了1930年代中國本身的工程師專家逐漸茁壯，知識輿論界也吹動一股標準化的風潮；中國本土工程師被延攬進入南京國民政府體制，一批技術官僚從理論和實務，共同推動工業標準化的進程。從一戰初期到1930年代，美國標準化經驗對中國有主導影響；日後隨著中國抗戰情勢的演變，推動標準化所涉及的意識形態傾向和國家方針也產生變化。

"Standardization is a product of the second wave of the Industrial Revolution in Europe. It is based on the convenience of interchangeable standardized parts, which has allowed modern factories to operate according to mass production methods. Standardization has changed the basic characteristics of modern production methods; it has helped to industrialize societies and affected economies throughout the world, and has had a profound impact on the global transfer of technology. This article examines how Western standardization practices were introduced, transmitted, and promoted in China during the first half of the twentieth century. In particular, it looks at the critical role played by British, American and local Chinese engineers in the transmission process. As the topics covered in the present article have seldom been considered before, the present article helps to fill a current gap in our scholarship.In the early twentieth century, the Engineering Society of China, led by British engineers, promoted standardization in the Shanghai International Settlement area. After World War I, the Association of Chinese and American Engineers, founded by engineers from China and the United States, began to standardize China’s railway, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Transportation of the central government in Beijing. In the 1930s, thanks to the strong backing of Chinese engineers and intellectuals, the standardization movement became increasingly popular among government officials and the general public; and thus, a technocracy was put in charge of plans for development of industrial standardization nationwide. From World War I to the 1930s, the orientation and practices of American standardization strategies dominated China. With the onset of the Sino-Japanese War, however, the situation in China worsened rapidly, thus derailing the process of standardization. New ideologies and different development strategies contributed further to the decline of the standardization movement."