Shu Wan

From Introduction to Indigenization: A Technology History of Hearing Aids in Republican and Socialist China

Shu Wan

University at Buffalo

shuwan@buffalo.edu

As an assistive technology in treating hearing impairment, the development of hearing aids has significantly shaped the perception of deafness. However, the trajectory of this technology in modern China has yet to be well studied. This paper explores the forgotten history in the following three phases: the introduction of hearing aids as Western knowledge, their import as new technology, and their production in a Chinese factory. As early as the 1930s, the development of hearing aids was introduced as a modern miracle in the Chinese press. In the following two decades, both Western corporations and the communist government imported hearing aids and provided them for Chinese deaf people. Parallel to the advance of industrialization in socialist China, the first hearing aids factory was established in 1960. Through the lens of the trajectory of hearing aids in mid-20th century China, this essay argues for the importance of the materialist aspect of Chinese deaf and disability history.

BIOGRAPHY

Shu Wan is currently matriculated as a doctoral student in history at the University at Buffalo.