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The Discourse of Race in Modern China
This is the first systematic study of a topic which cuts straight through the heart of many aspects of intellectual life in modern China and has hitherto remained unexplored because it has been deemed to be embarrassing and politically the discourse of race. This book looks at the emergence of racial stereotypes during the nineteenth century, the gradual formation of a racial discourse at the turn of the century, the conceptualization of racial nationalism at the beginning of the 1910s, and the institutionalization and habituation of this discourse by the academic community in the 1920s and '30s. It also provides the first analysis of eugenics--the pseudo-science of race improvement--in Republican China. The work is based on a wide variety of sources, some hitherto neglected by sinologists, such as primers on anthropology, genetics and eugenics, pamphlets on racial nationalism, medical handbooks, schoolbooks and caricatures.
The author first demonstrates that racial categories of analysis were not confined to the edges of Chinese thought systems, but have been widespread and influential during the past century. Secondly, he argues that racial discourse did not result from 'Western influence' but was largely due to endogenous developments which had only a minimal relationship to Western thought. Thirdly, he dispels the myth of Chinese 'cultural universalism' to show that outgroups were often classified according to physical characteristics alleged to be permanent. And finally, he indicates that this discourse did not exist in isolation of social movements but was part of a symbolic universe in perpetual change.
Frank Dikotter's conceptual approach is grounded in discourse analysis, social constructivism and intergroup sociology. He makes detailed comparisons with Western notions of race, and approaches a number of related topics such as Occidentalism, non-Darwinian evolutionism, categorical thought, the construction of emotions, and the misuse of science. Racial prejudice is still endemic in the People's Republic of China and the book provides the background to a better understanding of this crucial phenomenon.
The Discourse of Race in Modern China will be of interest not only to students of Chinese affairs, but also to those concerned with the history of mentalities, race studies, group psychology, medical anthropology and cultural studies in general.
The author first demonstrates that racial categories of analysis were not confined to the edges of Chinese thought systems, but have been widespread and influential during the past century. Secondly, he argues that racial discourse did not result from 'Western influence' but was largely due to endogenous developments which had only a minimal relationship to Western thought. Thirdly, he dispels the myth of Chinese 'cultural universalism' to show that outgroups were often classified according to physical characteristics alleged to be permanent. And finally, he indicates that this discourse did not exist in isolation of social movements but was part of a symbolic universe in perpetual change.
Frank Dikotter's conceptual approach is grounded in discourse analysis, social constructivism and intergroup sociology. He makes detailed comparisons with Western notions of race, and approaches a number of related topics such as Occidentalism, non-Darwinian evolutionism, categorical thought, the construction of emotions, and the misuse of science. Racial prejudice is still endemic in the People's Republic of China and the book provides the background to a better understanding of this crucial phenomenon.
The Discourse of Race in Modern China will be of interest not only to students of Chinese affairs, but also to those concerned with the history of mentalities, race studies, group psychology, medical anthropology and cultural studies in general.
251 pages, Hardcover
First published February 21, 1992
About the author
Frank Dikötter
20 books452 followersFrank Dikötter (Chinese: 馮客; pinyin: Féng Kè) is the Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong and Professor of the Modern History of China on leave from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Born in the Netherlands in 1961, he was educated in Switzerland and graduated from the University of Geneva with a Double Major in History and Russian. After two years in the People's Republic of China, he moved to London where he obtained his PhD in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 1990. He stayed at SOAS as British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and as Wellcome Research Fellow before being promoted to a personal chair as Professor of the Modern History of China in 2002. His research and writing has been funded by over 1.5 US$ million in grants from various foundations, including, in Britain, the Wellcome Trust, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Economic and Social Research Council and, in Hong Kong, the Research Grants Council and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation.
He has published a dozen books that have changed the ways historians view modern China, from the classic The Discourse of Race in Modern China (1992) to China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower (2022). His 2010 book Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe was selected as one of the Books of the Year in 2010 by The Economist, The Independent, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard (selected twice), The Telegraph, the New Statesman and the BBC History Magazine, and is on the longlist for the 2011 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.
Born in the Netherlands in 1961, he was educated in Switzerland and graduated from the University of Geneva with a Double Major in History and Russian. After two years in the People's Republic of China, he moved to London where he obtained his PhD in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 1990. He stayed at SOAS as British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and as Wellcome Research Fellow before being promoted to a personal chair as Professor of the Modern History of China in 2002. His research and writing has been funded by over 1.5 US$ million in grants from various foundations, including, in Britain, the Wellcome Trust, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Economic and Social Research Council and, in Hong Kong, the Research Grants Council and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation.
He has published a dozen books that have changed the ways historians view modern China, from the classic The Discourse of Race in Modern China (1992) to China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower (2022). His 2010 book Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe was selected as one of the Books of the Year in 2010 by The Economist, The Independent, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard (selected twice), The Telegraph, the New Statesman and the BBC History Magazine, and is on the longlist for the 2011 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 28, 2016
It is less well known, however, that racial discourse also thrived in societies outside Europe and North America. It is generally assumed that racial prejudice can only be a 'white' phenomenon under which other people, lumped together under the heading 'coloured', have to suffer.
This book is from 1992 and sadly this statement is still accurate in every way.
This book was quite an eye opener and it had quite interesting things from the start, like stating that African slaves were imported to China in the Tang dynasty already and that the Youyang zazu already integrates "the African" with the lowest scale in the social hierarchy.
And just in case anybody ever comes to you with "ancient China was so peaceful & tolerant and life was fair," just remind them that in Confucian universe blackness had always been an expression of slavery, anti-Buddhism was among others argued with "Barbarians are always evil and Chinese always good" and the Daoist work Sonpolun contained an "unabashed appeal to the extermination of the barbarians."
We get some more information, like how the Mongols divided the population of the empire into four categories, how in China the development of racial consciousness was due largely to internal developments and it apparently was convincingly demonstrated that the sense of identity through racial descent became important to the Qing court in the eighteenth century.
In addition, despite what you might hear today, already before Darwin, European typology divided mankind into several permanent racial types, each of which was believed to have existed without change since its creation on earth. And yet so many people still claim that confidence in the theory of evolution causes racism?
And what you got to read from China could be equally demeaning and racist, you see in one category of the world China, Korea, Tibet, Vietnam and Burma formed the core of the universe, called huaxia zhi guo, or Chinese states; Japan, Russia, Europe and North America constituted the yidi zhi guo, or States of the Barbarians; and Africa, South America and Australia were relegated to the lowest category, the qinshou zhi guo, or States of the Beasts.
Furthermore something that seems familiar to me today is that in China then the notion of a white race was narrowed down to the Anglo-Saxons; all other Westerners simply receded into the background. This sounds extremely familiar to me today.
And just for the record and all of those Pan-Asians out there who tend to ignore or downplay I might remind them that for Chinese the Vietnamese and the Filipinos were usually classified as 'brown', but during the struggle against the French the Vietnamese suddenly found themselves described as "real yellows" and while the Filipinos were normally excluded as black savages, suddenly they were portrayed as the 'spearhead of the yellow race's fight against the white race' during their struggle against the United States in 1898. And regarding Chinese ethnocentrism: Japan's success in emulating the West was ascribed to the fact that its race had originated from China.
Also, the Miao were described as China's aborigines, similar to "America's reds or Australia's blacks." And like them, in the Chinese scholarly mind the Miao were doomed to rapid extinction and deserved no further attention. And in fact this reminded me of having read that the Hmong/Miao have the legend that the Chinese once tried to hunt them to extinction.
And it's not as if it got much better later on in the early 20th century, you see what those reformers, especially the Tang guy (not that traditionalists are any better), write about improving the yellow race via mixing with whites (and some darker ones, very limited though), sounds awfully similar to what I read some years ago in a paper on what I think where celebrities in Hong Kong, it stated that mixed-bloods (mixed with white Americans) are preferred.
In the end it was interesting how Hitlerism did not stop eugenics in China and how under Mao class was basically the same as race and the book also wrote about "African comrades" experiencing racism from Chinese despite the Chinese claim of unity against white people.
I wished there would have been more, but the book had ended pretty quickly all of a sudden.
This book is from 1992 and sadly this statement is still accurate in every way.
This book was quite an eye opener and it had quite interesting things from the start, like stating that African slaves were imported to China in the Tang dynasty already and that the Youyang zazu already integrates "the African" with the lowest scale in the social hierarchy.
And just in case anybody ever comes to you with "ancient China was so peaceful & tolerant and life was fair," just remind them that in Confucian universe blackness had always been an expression of slavery, anti-Buddhism was among others argued with "Barbarians are always evil and Chinese always good" and the Daoist work Sonpolun contained an "unabashed appeal to the extermination of the barbarians."
We get some more information, like how the Mongols divided the population of the empire into four categories, how in China the development of racial consciousness was due largely to internal developments and it apparently was convincingly demonstrated that the sense of identity through racial descent became important to the Qing court in the eighteenth century.
In addition, despite what you might hear today, already before Darwin, European typology divided mankind into several permanent racial types, each of which was believed to have existed without change since its creation on earth. And yet so many people still claim that confidence in the theory of evolution causes racism?
And what you got to read from China could be equally demeaning and racist, you see in one category of the world China, Korea, Tibet, Vietnam and Burma formed the core of the universe, called huaxia zhi guo, or Chinese states; Japan, Russia, Europe and North America constituted the yidi zhi guo, or States of the Barbarians; and Africa, South America and Australia were relegated to the lowest category, the qinshou zhi guo, or States of the Beasts.
Furthermore something that seems familiar to me today is that in China then the notion of a white race was narrowed down to the Anglo-Saxons; all other Westerners simply receded into the background. This sounds extremely familiar to me today.
And just for the record and all of those Pan-Asians out there who tend to ignore or downplay I might remind them that for Chinese the Vietnamese and the Filipinos were usually classified as 'brown', but during the struggle against the French the Vietnamese suddenly found themselves described as "real yellows" and while the Filipinos were normally excluded as black savages, suddenly they were portrayed as the 'spearhead of the yellow race's fight against the white race' during their struggle against the United States in 1898. And regarding Chinese ethnocentrism: Japan's success in emulating the West was ascribed to the fact that its race had originated from China.
Also, the Miao were described as China's aborigines, similar to "America's reds or Australia's blacks." And like them, in the Chinese scholarly mind the Miao were doomed to rapid extinction and deserved no further attention. And in fact this reminded me of having read that the Hmong/Miao have the legend that the Chinese once tried to hunt them to extinction.
And it's not as if it got much better later on in the early 20th century, you see what those reformers, especially the Tang guy (not that traditionalists are any better), write about improving the yellow race via mixing with whites (and some darker ones, very limited though), sounds awfully similar to what I read some years ago in a paper on what I think where celebrities in Hong Kong, it stated that mixed-bloods (mixed with white Americans) are preferred.
In the end it was interesting how Hitlerism did not stop eugenics in China and how under Mao class was basically the same as race and the book also wrote about "African comrades" experiencing racism from Chinese despite the Chinese claim of unity against white people.
I wished there would have been more, but the book had ended pretty quickly all of a sudden.
December 10, 2011
An interesting look at how race was looked at in traditional China, and how Chinese scientists selectively adapted Western racial concepts, such as eugenics, to their own philosophies and agendas. He traces the way in which race was used to support a “human-barbarian” dichotomy in earliest times, then investigations of superiority within China (Han vs. Manchu, for example) to class distinctions, and finally to the Communist ideology of white vs. all other races in global struggle. The comments on how color was regarded were most interesting, with Chinese writers alternately conceding their inferiority and asserting their superiority, not over just the “blacks” and “browns” but “white” races as well.
December 9, 2017
Kind of depressing. If you don't like reading about the 1930's eugenics movement, this is not the book for you.
The one child policy is eugenics with Chinese characteristics.
Interesting things:
Like the West is obsessed with 3 and 7, China seems to be obsessed with 2 and 5. (At least according to this source).
Lots of Chinese scholars in the late 19th, early 20th century were educated in Japan
Understanding of pregnancy was based on rice cultivation rather than animal cultivation, so they thought (apparently correctly?) that you could influence the development of the child all the way through pregnancy.
The anti-eugenics arguments did not get translated along with the eugenics arguments.
Pre-communist China was extremely anti-African. Communist China was patronizing towards Africans (we must help our pitiful and weak African comrades) and modern day China is pretty racist towards Africans.
There's an argument that Chinese people didn't originate in Africa that crops up every time a new human fossil is found in China.
The one child policy is eugenics with Chinese characteristics.
Interesting things:
Like the West is obsessed with 3 and 7, China seems to be obsessed with 2 and 5. (At least according to this source).
Lots of Chinese scholars in the late 19th, early 20th century were educated in Japan
Understanding of pregnancy was based on rice cultivation rather than animal cultivation, so they thought (apparently correctly?) that you could influence the development of the child all the way through pregnancy.
The anti-eugenics arguments did not get translated along with the eugenics arguments.
Pre-communist China was extremely anti-African. Communist China was patronizing towards Africans (we must help our pitiful and weak African comrades) and modern day China is pretty racist towards Africans.
There's an argument that Chinese people didn't originate in Africa that crops up every time a new human fossil is found in China.
February 6, 2017
Trailblazing. A smooth and illuminating read. His uber-confident tone borders on arrogance from time to time, but for a chap as clever as this we can overlook such foibles. The second edition, just published, doesn't add quite as much as I'd hoped, but Dikötter has been very busy indeed since 1992 so I guess he didn't have the time for a whole lot more. Perhaps the fact that this book is still the locus classicus is also a sign that the field as a whole has not received enough attention from competent scholars, certainly nothing compared to the vast industries devoted to examining race in the US from every conceivable angle.
May 13, 2021
For anyone operating the delusion that racism is a product of the West, this book is the antidote. The "racialist" worldview is so deep-seated in China that even Mao's apocalyptic Communist revolution - in which the ideology of class struggle was supposed to displace all other human historical categorizations - failed to overcome it. Communist China today is hopelessly racist. A brisk, scholarly read at only 137 pages of actual text, this is obligatory reading. It belongs in the canon of books about China.
May 15, 2020
I will review all chapters. Mostly I will go over the author's psychology pseudoscience as I feel like this is the major issue with this book that I personally have expertise in. Obviously the Chinese history is amazing at times here but as he has an endless need to state his opinion on actual science it's hard to just ignore that. He is obviously not a psychologist but it's still something I notice.
Besides this it's a very interesting topic and book overall.
Preface to the Revised and Expanded Edition
1/10
He the author is stating that in the first edition the author claimed that races are not real. Since then genetic studies have proven his statement wrong as it stands yet he doesn't seem to acknowledge this fact. And I don't understand why he would even claim this sort of nonsense in the first place.
I don't claim we have to use the term race. But at least we should accept that genetic diffences are real.
Preface and Acknowledgements
1/10
I was very close to putting the book away here. I want to read about Chinese ideology not the author's. If I wanted to read his unscientific philosophy about life I'd read his biography.
This is the old preface where the author claims races are not real. He also preaches a lot about racism against black people and how horrible this line of thinking is. Basically it's one long moral lecture that will make any critical reader doubt the validity of the research in the book. If the author can't keep neutral but needs to educate the reader on his personal moral worldviews I'm not sure he can critically study any subject. But since there are not many other books on this topic I'll try to read it anyhow.
1. Race as Culture: Historical Background
SECTION ONE
The barbarian in the classics
The barbarian in mythology
Environmental determinism
‘Raw’ and ‘cooked’ barbarians
Skin colour
White ash
Black coal
SECTION TWO
Anti-Buddhism
Song loyalism
Anti-Manchuism
Conclusion
-------------------------
6/10
It's not bad. There are a few good passages. But it's a confusing mess and very hard to read.
This is a very confusing chapter. Many times just random Chinese names are mentioned. Like this hypothetical example: "Li died in this war." It's hard to know who Li is or when the war took place. Some prior mentioned name? The chapter basically jumps from Chinese writer to Chinese writer. I couldn't really keep up, mostly because I think this chapter requires you to already be a semi-expert on Chinese history and place the dates and people yourself. Some passages were interesting though and the main point comes across clearly. The Chinese considered themselves to be the chosen people just like all other races and nationalities.
2. Race as Type (1793-1895)
Demonology
Teratology
Anatomy
Geography
Typology
Intermarriage
-------------------------
7/10
This chapter is a big step up in quality.
Here he gave us a date range in the chapter title so I knew a circa period for any statement that wasn't clearly marked with a date. That helped me actually understand the gist of the values Chinese intellectuals held. The author was also better at stating dates and events here and the European sources are a great addition as they are better dated in history. There are also a lot of really great quotes here! Really interesting historical texts. Of course there are still some minuses here like how the author proposes that the names of colors actually shape how we perceive colors - hence why skin color doesn't matter that much. Yet another claim that's in the pseudoscience territory just added to tell us about moral progressive values where skin color is an illusion. This one at least is more reasonable than the "no races exist" claim. But I think the author is confused about how the brain works. Words don't just make us fly or grow. I'm sure even the ethnic group he talks about can in fact see all colors even though they don't have separate names for all of them. This bunk science is called linguistic determinism and reveals a moral blank slate focus in the book. But it's not overdone so far. And you can argue that the color claim is about some minor cultural influence.
3. Race as Lineage (1895-1903)
Racial war
Racial origins
Racial extinction
Racial classification
Racial hierarchy
Racial frontiers
Racial assimilation
‘Western influence’
Alternatives
-------------------------
7/10
Even easier to understand but still a puzzle written for experts.
I'm getting into the book. As there is more Western influence in this time period we are getting closer to a legit race theory and going away from "weird giants in another country" thinking. Here the Chinese adopt Western ideas and research and try to combine those ideas with the conservative Confucianism that doesn't allow for much modern thinking. I know from history that later on Communists destroyed many old art pieces and artifacts to make sure China could fully transgress into a blank slate socialist state. But here the Chinese are moving ahead step by step into enlightenment while still remaining respectful to their history and culture.
4. Race as Nation (1903-1915)
Racial evolution
Racial preservation
Racial ancestry
Racial origins
Racial nationalism
-------------------------
6/10
I figured the book would get easier. But it's still confusing even though the info is really good.
It's getting more focused. China is becoming nationalistic here and the race theories from Europe are adopted by China to make the yellow race look as strong as the white race. Han Chinese are seen as the clever archetype Chinese race. Social Darwinism is also used to support this ideology. Unfortunately there are still a ton of names in this chapter and just too little background info. It reads like a collection of facts. Like a handbook for experts.
5. Race as Species (1915-1949)
Introduction
Origins
Colour
Hair
Odour
Intelligence
Stereotypes
Hierarchy
Armageddon
-------------------------
5/10
Good chapter if you can overlook all the author's pseudoscience claims. Some may do that. Some may be confused and be mislead by them. Do I rate this 9/10 or 5/10? Well, it depends on who I recommend it to.
The author claims that eugenics is a pseudoscience. While in reality it's actually pseudoscience to think humans are not organisms with genes. Of course eugenics works on us just like it works on cows, dogs, cats and sheep. He may have wanted to say that he is against state-controlled eugenics. Most people are. Doesn't mean it's impossible.
Then the author attacks the skull size and intelligence link. That one is considered a fact today so I'm not sure how it could have been disproven in 1908. A simple Google Scholar search will reveal an endless row of studies on this. Today we scan the sizes of brains instead of just using skull sizes and here the correlation with IQ is even higher.
He also attacks the IQ test and calls it biased. That claim is so far fetched that even Flynn, who is the main speaker for the environment IQ side on most issues, calls this out in his articles. Again, do a simple Google Scholar search or read any of the 100 books on IQ out there. This is a very old myth like the "humans only use 10% of their brain" myth. I'm not sure why laymen keep saying this stuff.
The author ought to explain why, according to him, races do not exist. He clearly has an ideological worldview he is very eager to center his writing around. It's not a big thing but it's irritating that these Chinese scientists are made to look like stupid gullible barbarians fumbling in the dark. They are actually slowly uncovering facts about race groups and IQ that the author for some reason thinks they are just completely wrong. Not so. If you want to understand more just look at the country IQ map. It's a good starting point though not anything that conclusively proves anything. Just a good illustration of gene distribution. Of course there are also plain gene world maps. No matter if you think races exist or not these genetic groups do in fact exist. That's a fact only ignorant people would deny as even some medicine is created to fit specific racial groups.
A big error in this chapter and the prior chapters is also a lack of images. The author keeps spending a lot of pages on explaining how those textbook images looked like but he never shows any of them even though they have been out of copyright for maybe 50 to 80 years. This makes the book considerably harder to follow and less visual. 20 images alone would for me raise the rating of this book.
6. Race as Seed (1915-1949)
Background
Expansion
Apogee
-------------------------
6/10
The author still rages on. But it's not as extreme. Either way it's a good chapter yet again if you ignore all that ideology stuff.
Here we dive into the eugenics movement itself instead of looking at philosophical claims only. Practical ideas are brought forward. Nothing is implemented, just like before. But here it feels like the eugenics movement may finally produce some results.
The difference between a good social scientist vs. a bad social scientist is that the good scientist wants to see experiments done if they can produce useful and illuminating results. Of course as a social scientist I'm eager for liberal eugenics to actually be widely practiced somewhere in the world to see the results. I know some may consider it unnatural. But such is the thinking of a curious person.
7. Race as Nationality (1949-2012)
Race and class under Mao
Race and nation since 1978
Eugenics
Popular racism
-------------------------
9/10
Interestingly enough the other chapters were about philosophy and vague ideas. Here we see Communists grabbing power and on the first page we start exploring how Communists created xenophobic politics and after denouncing races soon after started grouping the Chinese people into races. They went away from genetics which also in Russia was considered capitalist science. They also rejected the chromosome theory.
This chapter is the easiest to read and even though the chapter topic is to me the least interesting in the book it still is a great chapter. Of course the author yet again tries to input his ideology into the book, but since this time it's actual racism, in that he describes racist events, I'll let this one slide. No one likes racism and I guess some bias against racism is fine.
Eugenics is not just loose philosophy any longer in China as the Communists now have grand plans and know how extremely expensive low IQ families are for a society. They also are eager to create a strong state with a single ideology and Muslims and other groups may not fit into their future communist utopia state.
My conclusion
I tried keeping this review short and only focus on what I felt stood out. Even though I dislike all the personal opinions in the book the history here is amazing at times. Confusing at other times though. It goes from 1/10 to 10/10 in a page. It's a big mess of personal opinions on the Chinese thinking and pure history.
I highly recommend this book, but only for very critical readers who at least have read Blank Slate and maybe 3 more such books to be able to know when a pseudoscience blank slate claim is made. Read Blank Slate and Moral Animal then try this one.
I strongly recommend chapter 5, 6 and 7 for the critical reader. They are very much must-read... for the critical reader.
A third edition of this book with better implementation of modern psychology science would be amazing. Let's all dream about that for a minute.
Besides this it's a very interesting topic and book overall.
Preface to the Revised and Expanded Edition
1/10
He the author is stating that in the first edition the author claimed that races are not real. Since then genetic studies have proven his statement wrong as it stands yet he doesn't seem to acknowledge this fact. And I don't understand why he would even claim this sort of nonsense in the first place.
I don't claim we have to use the term race. But at least we should accept that genetic diffences are real.
Preface and Acknowledgements
1/10
I was very close to putting the book away here. I want to read about Chinese ideology not the author's. If I wanted to read his unscientific philosophy about life I'd read his biography.
This is the old preface where the author claims races are not real. He also preaches a lot about racism against black people and how horrible this line of thinking is. Basically it's one long moral lecture that will make any critical reader doubt the validity of the research in the book. If the author can't keep neutral but needs to educate the reader on his personal moral worldviews I'm not sure he can critically study any subject. But since there are not many other books on this topic I'll try to read it anyhow.
1. Race as Culture: Historical Background
SECTION ONE
The barbarian in the classics
The barbarian in mythology
Environmental determinism
‘Raw’ and ‘cooked’ barbarians
Skin colour
White ash
Black coal
SECTION TWO
Anti-Buddhism
Song loyalism
Anti-Manchuism
Conclusion
-------------------------
6/10
It's not bad. There are a few good passages. But it's a confusing mess and very hard to read.
This is a very confusing chapter. Many times just random Chinese names are mentioned. Like this hypothetical example: "Li died in this war." It's hard to know who Li is or when the war took place. Some prior mentioned name? The chapter basically jumps from Chinese writer to Chinese writer. I couldn't really keep up, mostly because I think this chapter requires you to already be a semi-expert on Chinese history and place the dates and people yourself. Some passages were interesting though and the main point comes across clearly. The Chinese considered themselves to be the chosen people just like all other races and nationalities.
2. Race as Type (1793-1895)
Demonology
Teratology
Anatomy
Geography
Typology
Intermarriage
-------------------------
7/10
This chapter is a big step up in quality.
Here he gave us a date range in the chapter title so I knew a circa period for any statement that wasn't clearly marked with a date. That helped me actually understand the gist of the values Chinese intellectuals held. The author was also better at stating dates and events here and the European sources are a great addition as they are better dated in history. There are also a lot of really great quotes here! Really interesting historical texts. Of course there are still some minuses here like how the author proposes that the names of colors actually shape how we perceive colors - hence why skin color doesn't matter that much. Yet another claim that's in the pseudoscience territory just added to tell us about moral progressive values where skin color is an illusion. This one at least is more reasonable than the "no races exist" claim. But I think the author is confused about how the brain works. Words don't just make us fly or grow. I'm sure even the ethnic group he talks about can in fact see all colors even though they don't have separate names for all of them. This bunk science is called linguistic determinism and reveals a moral blank slate focus in the book. But it's not overdone so far. And you can argue that the color claim is about some minor cultural influence.
3. Race as Lineage (1895-1903)
Racial war
Racial origins
Racial extinction
Racial classification
Racial hierarchy
Racial frontiers
Racial assimilation
‘Western influence’
Alternatives
-------------------------
7/10
Even easier to understand but still a puzzle written for experts.
I'm getting into the book. As there is more Western influence in this time period we are getting closer to a legit race theory and going away from "weird giants in another country" thinking. Here the Chinese adopt Western ideas and research and try to combine those ideas with the conservative Confucianism that doesn't allow for much modern thinking. I know from history that later on Communists destroyed many old art pieces and artifacts to make sure China could fully transgress into a blank slate socialist state. But here the Chinese are moving ahead step by step into enlightenment while still remaining respectful to their history and culture.
4. Race as Nation (1903-1915)
Racial evolution
Racial preservation
Racial ancestry
Racial origins
Racial nationalism
-------------------------
6/10
I figured the book would get easier. But it's still confusing even though the info is really good.
It's getting more focused. China is becoming nationalistic here and the race theories from Europe are adopted by China to make the yellow race look as strong as the white race. Han Chinese are seen as the clever archetype Chinese race. Social Darwinism is also used to support this ideology. Unfortunately there are still a ton of names in this chapter and just too little background info. It reads like a collection of facts. Like a handbook for experts.
5. Race as Species (1915-1949)
Introduction
Origins
Colour
Hair
Odour
Intelligence
Stereotypes
Hierarchy
Armageddon
-------------------------
5/10
Good chapter if you can overlook all the author's pseudoscience claims. Some may do that. Some may be confused and be mislead by them. Do I rate this 9/10 or 5/10? Well, it depends on who I recommend it to.
The author claims that eugenics is a pseudoscience. While in reality it's actually pseudoscience to think humans are not organisms with genes. Of course eugenics works on us just like it works on cows, dogs, cats and sheep. He may have wanted to say that he is against state-controlled eugenics. Most people are. Doesn't mean it's impossible.
Then the author attacks the skull size and intelligence link. That one is considered a fact today so I'm not sure how it could have been disproven in 1908. A simple Google Scholar search will reveal an endless row of studies on this. Today we scan the sizes of brains instead of just using skull sizes and here the correlation with IQ is even higher.
He also attacks the IQ test and calls it biased. That claim is so far fetched that even Flynn, who is the main speaker for the environment IQ side on most issues, calls this out in his articles. Again, do a simple Google Scholar search or read any of the 100 books on IQ out there. This is a very old myth like the "humans only use 10% of their brain" myth. I'm not sure why laymen keep saying this stuff.
The author ought to explain why, according to him, races do not exist. He clearly has an ideological worldview he is very eager to center his writing around. It's not a big thing but it's irritating that these Chinese scientists are made to look like stupid gullible barbarians fumbling in the dark. They are actually slowly uncovering facts about race groups and IQ that the author for some reason thinks they are just completely wrong. Not so. If you want to understand more just look at the country IQ map. It's a good starting point though not anything that conclusively proves anything. Just a good illustration of gene distribution. Of course there are also plain gene world maps. No matter if you think races exist or not these genetic groups do in fact exist. That's a fact only ignorant people would deny as even some medicine is created to fit specific racial groups.
A big error in this chapter and the prior chapters is also a lack of images. The author keeps spending a lot of pages on explaining how those textbook images looked like but he never shows any of them even though they have been out of copyright for maybe 50 to 80 years. This makes the book considerably harder to follow and less visual. 20 images alone would for me raise the rating of this book.
6. Race as Seed (1915-1949)
Background
Expansion
Apogee
-------------------------
6/10
The author still rages on. But it's not as extreme. Either way it's a good chapter yet again if you ignore all that ideology stuff.
Here we dive into the eugenics movement itself instead of looking at philosophical claims only. Practical ideas are brought forward. Nothing is implemented, just like before. But here it feels like the eugenics movement may finally produce some results.
The difference between a good social scientist vs. a bad social scientist is that the good scientist wants to see experiments done if they can produce useful and illuminating results. Of course as a social scientist I'm eager for liberal eugenics to actually be widely practiced somewhere in the world to see the results. I know some may consider it unnatural. But such is the thinking of a curious person.
7. Race as Nationality (1949-2012)
Race and class under Mao
Race and nation since 1978
Eugenics
Popular racism
-------------------------
9/10
Interestingly enough the other chapters were about philosophy and vague ideas. Here we see Communists grabbing power and on the first page we start exploring how Communists created xenophobic politics and after denouncing races soon after started grouping the Chinese people into races. They went away from genetics which also in Russia was considered capitalist science. They also rejected the chromosome theory.
This chapter is the easiest to read and even though the chapter topic is to me the least interesting in the book it still is a great chapter. Of course the author yet again tries to input his ideology into the book, but since this time it's actual racism, in that he describes racist events, I'll let this one slide. No one likes racism and I guess some bias against racism is fine.
Eugenics is not just loose philosophy any longer in China as the Communists now have grand plans and know how extremely expensive low IQ families are for a society. They also are eager to create a strong state with a single ideology and Muslims and other groups may not fit into their future communist utopia state.
My conclusion
I tried keeping this review short and only focus on what I felt stood out. Even though I dislike all the personal opinions in the book the history here is amazing at times. Confusing at other times though. It goes from 1/10 to 10/10 in a page. It's a big mess of personal opinions on the Chinese thinking and pure history.
I highly recommend this book, but only for very critical readers who at least have read Blank Slate and maybe 3 more such books to be able to know when a pseudoscience blank slate claim is made. Read Blank Slate and Moral Animal then try this one.
I strongly recommend chapter 5, 6 and 7 for the critical reader. They are very much must-read... for the critical reader.
A third edition of this book with better implementation of modern psychology science would be amazing. Let's all dream about that for a minute.
July 25, 2024
- The book surveys prodominant feeling towards different "race" throughout modern Chinese history. And times after times, one theme plays out: which is that the group that makes the judgement always consider themselves the "righteous" group. And any foreign group must be "wrong" or simply, "devils". The irony plays out even when the said prodominant group - the Han ethnics - lost their country to the Mongols during the Yuan dynasty as well as the Manchurians during the Qing dynasty - or during the Opium war losing to the (I shall say, rather bare boned) western offenses. Even during those times when Han knows they're in the defeat, using moral high ground of Han being the "righteous" people, they still have very little incentives to learn from others. And of course - as the author rightfully pointed out in the book, the westerners makes the exact same accusation of the easterners at the time
- Contrary to the popular notion - as noted by the author - that China has been a group of homogeneous group. The reality is that race has always been very much of a big factor throughout the Chinese history. Except that - perhaps similar to their European counterpart - they see non-Chinese as non humans, or "barbarians"
- The Han people divided people around today's China into several parts and often call them "ghosts", "devils" or b"arbarians". At times, the main idea was that they could "culture" those barbarians with Chinese ideas (since they believe the Chinese idea is the most wholesome of all)
- Slavery from Africa also occurred in the distant Chinese history. As the Chinese describe Africans as "ink black". They also noted that Africans' stomach couldn't stomach cooked food. Diahrea would occur after eating cooked food and they need to "change bowl" in order to get used to cooked food
- On Caucasians: the Chinese in the past sees Caucasians as barbarians as well. As they noted Caucasians have "ash white" skin and "red" hair. They view Caucasians as unfavorably as any other group
- On colorism: colorism is very much a thing in the past (and I might add, still alive and well in today's China). Being pale has been seen as attractive compared to their darker counterparts
- There are other weird accusations the Chinese made of the Caucasians. For instance, some believed at one point that Caucasians have 4 testicles (author then quickly pointed out that the Caucasians at the time believed Asian women have horizontal vuvlar, just like their slanted eyes)
- Keeping the heritage pure has been a main theme up until recently. That marrying a foreigner was seen as a betrayal of the Chinese race (a similar sentiment obviously played out in the western front. As Americans intentionally limit the migration and repopupation of the "Chinaman" up until recent history)
- Contrary to the popular notion - as noted by the author - that China has been a group of homogeneous group. The reality is that race has always been very much of a big factor throughout the Chinese history. Except that - perhaps similar to their European counterpart - they see non-Chinese as non humans, or "barbarians"
- The Han people divided people around today's China into several parts and often call them "ghosts", "devils" or b"arbarians". At times, the main idea was that they could "culture" those barbarians with Chinese ideas (since they believe the Chinese idea is the most wholesome of all)
- Slavery from Africa also occurred in the distant Chinese history. As the Chinese describe Africans as "ink black". They also noted that Africans' stomach couldn't stomach cooked food. Diahrea would occur after eating cooked food and they need to "change bowl" in order to get used to cooked food
- On Caucasians: the Chinese in the past sees Caucasians as barbarians as well. As they noted Caucasians have "ash white" skin and "red" hair. They view Caucasians as unfavorably as any other group
- On colorism: colorism is very much a thing in the past (and I might add, still alive and well in today's China). Being pale has been seen as attractive compared to their darker counterparts
- There are other weird accusations the Chinese made of the Caucasians. For instance, some believed at one point that Caucasians have 4 testicles (author then quickly pointed out that the Caucasians at the time believed Asian women have horizontal vuvlar, just like their slanted eyes)
- Keeping the heritage pure has been a main theme up until recently. That marrying a foreigner was seen as a betrayal of the Chinese race (a similar sentiment obviously played out in the western front. As Americans intentionally limit the migration and repopupation of the "Chinaman" up until recent history)
Read
April 30, 2021i didn't succeed in reading it all in one day but i did read and take notes on all of it in two afternoons so i'm counting it as a win.
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