Tribology in China

The history of tribology research in China is reviewed briefly in this paper. Developmental stages are divided, and some memorable events in tribology research in China are introduced from my personal view. The statistics of the funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and of published research papers on tribology in the Web of Science database are analyzed to better understand the state-of-the-art of tribology research in China, including most active research institutions and fields. In addition, major research contents are obtained according to keywords, and main achievements in tribology related to lubrication, lubricating materials, superlubricity, wear, biotribology and bionictribology, nanotribology, surface engineering, tribology in extreme conditions, and machine elements, particularly in recent years, are summarized. This paper shows that tribology is a rapidly developing discipline in China and has been one of the most important contributors to world tribology.