As Han Pao-te explains, at that time academic exchanges with mainland China had not yet been authorized, and although much research material exists on the history of Chinese science and technology, it was not accessible to researchers here in Taiwan.
漢寶德解釋，那時兩岸學術交流尚未開放，研究中國科技史的資料雖然很多，但台灣這邊看不到，而日本卻可以取得大陸的一手資料。