Reinvigorating the Nation: China, Scandinavia and the Global Eugenic Discourse, ca. 1914-1940
Olivier Feis and Michael Wang – University of St Andrews
Over the course of the early 20th century eugenics established itself as a socio-scientific discipline of global importance. While separated by language and space, Chinese and Scandinavian scientists equally perceived eugenics, which is to say efforts aimed at selectively improving the physical and intellectual ‘quality’ of national populations, as a potential solution to the ‘problems of modernity’. Indeed, fears surrounding racial and national ‘degeneration’ and ‘decline’ underlay calls to ‘rejuvenate’ or ‘reinvigorate’ national populations in China, Sweden, and Norway during the 1910s and throughout the interwar period. In this sense, Chinese eugenicists like Ru Chunpu and Pan Guagdan (1899-1967) shared a vocabulary, a view of the present, and a vision for the future, with their Scandinavian counterparts, such as Jon Alfred Mjöen (1960-1939) and Herman Lundborg (1868-1943). While these similarities stand as evidence to the influence of the Global Eugenic Discourse during the period, Chinese eugenic theories and practices diverged significantly from their Scandinavian counterparts, particular in relation to the importance of ‘race’ and its relation to the nation.
This paper compares eugenic theories in China, Sweden, and Norway during the interwar period to explore the paradoxical relationship between Chinese and Scandinavian eugenic discourses. It contends that while the Global Eugenics Discourse offered an intellectual framework to identify and solve the various problems emerging from the crisis of modernity, national discourses ultimately shaped the content, scope, and purpose of eugenic theories and policies in Sweden, Norway, and China.