The Terminological Battle for 'Air' in Modern China

Introduction In contemporary science education we take the understanding of ‘air’ as a mixture of gases and the physical and chemical properties of air and its components for granted. Air has in recent years become the object of renewed interest and concern with debates on the climate effects of rising CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere and on the negative health effects of ambient and indoor airborne pollution. In China recently the most impassioned debates and disturbing information have been related to the rising levels and harmful effects of the small particles of particulate matter in urban air, mostly measured as the smallest particles of particulate matter in air referred to as PM2.5. This focus on and concern about airborne gases and airborne pollution is an effect of increasing scientific knowledge about the climate and the relationship between the quality of ambient air and human health. This now global field of research has developed rapidly over a period of a few decades. In historical terms the field of knowledge related to air, pollution and health has also gone through several stages where the construction of meaning and knowledge to explain the seemingly empty (kong 空) space between heaven and earth and between man and his/her environment has developed with the historical development of science.