This course aims to cultivate students’ systematic and critical thinking about science, technology, innovation, and society, especially in light of the transition from traditional China to contemporary China. Differing from the usual courses focusing on this subject, this course will take a social and critical approach, enabling students to understand and analyze the social, political, and cultural preconditions and impacts of scientific and technological development. By the end of the course, students should understand the significance of the social, cultural, and political preconditions underlying scientific and technological innovations and be able to gauge the impact of those innovations. They should also be able to systematically analyze the factors that make innovation significant and use this analysis to critically examine the development of science and technology over the course of China’s history.