“Science, Technology, Society and Culture ” Talk Series 01: From Yanhuang to 1000 genomes: BGI’s genomics and Chinese territory

“Science, Technology, Society and Culture” Talk Series 01

From Yanhuang to 1000 genomes: BGI’s genomics and Chinese territory

BGI (huada jiyin, 华大基因), founded in Beijing in 1999, is one of the world’s largest genomics companies. After moving to Shenzhen in 2007, BGI massively scaled up its capacity for genomic sequencing with next-generation sequencing machines. One of the first projects undertaken with these new machines was to sequence the “first Asian genome” – the complete genome of an Asian individual. This “Yanhuang Project,” as it was called, laid the groundwork for BGI’s – and hence China’s – participation in large-scale, international collaborative genomics projects as well as for national projects aimed at collecting and analyzing the DNA of China’s minority populations. I draw here from literature in border and boundary studies to suggest how genomics projects have engaged and are engaging in a range of bordering practices that act to de- and re-territorialize Chinese land and bodies. Such practices have included the marking of particular ethnic or racial groups as either “inside” or “outside” particular nations or regions, the reinforcing of histories or myths that foster “imagined communities,” the reinforcement of national prestige or symbols, and the strengthening of border regions for military and economic purposes.