Imperfect Conceptions: Medical Knowledge, Birth Defects, and Eugenics in China (review)

Frank Dikötter. Imperfect Conceptions: Medical Knowledge, Birth Defects, and Eugenics in China. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. xi + 226 pp. Ill. $27.50.

One of the characteristics that future historians might associate with the twentieth century is the notion of eugenics--that is, the belief that science, medicine, and politics should collaborate in improving human heredity. For about a hundred years now, no other set of ideas has promised to rid mankind of as many problems as has eugenics. The emotional panic experienced by many couples threatened with being obliged to live with a disabled child, the economic and social burdens that such offspring entail for individuals and for society as a whole, the desire to develop a strong nation and remove those considered a burden, the aim to eliminate those believed to jeopardize racial purity, and quite a few motives more, have let eugenics be "embraced by social reformers, established intellectuals and medical authorities from one extreme of the political spectrum to the other, from British conservatives to Spanish anarchists" (p. 4). In fact, the fears and desires addressed by eugenics are so fundamental, are obviously tied to the human condition to such a degree, that it would be difficult to find cultural borders it was unable to cross. Hence it should be no surprise that China has also been part of this movement. From the acceptance of social Darwinist notions at the dusk of the imperial age to the passing of eugenics legislation in 1995, China has joined a worldwide attempt at finding modern answers to a wide range of modern and ancient concerns.

In his most recent book, Frank Dikötter continues his investigation into the interplay of medicine, population politics, and social factors in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century China. His study of "medical knowledge, birth defects, and eugenics" is a noteworthy collection and first analysis of data demonstrating the particular Chinese perspective on what was also known as racial hygiene in the West. Even though eugenics transcended all cultural borders, in each country where it entered the social discourse, and where legislation designed to enforce it was passed, this was against a background formed by that country's own traditions and current socioeconomic idiosyncracies; hence, "this book explains eugenics in China not as a mere derivation of a more 'authentic' discourse from Europe, but as the result of an active process of appropriation located in a specific cultural, social and political context" (p. 12). To meet this objective, Dikötter presents his material, following a lengthy introduction, in three central chapters: he familiarizes his readers with "Medical Theories and Birth Defects in Late Imperial China"; he outlines "The Regulation of Reproduction in Republican China"; and, preceding his conclusion, he turns to "Eugenics in the People's Republic of China."

Anyone interested in the social history of late Qing and twentieth-century China will find Dikötter's data immensely helpful. In particular, a wide range of references to twentieth-century Chinese publications makes possible easy bibliographic access to, and invites further detailed studies of, the issues discussed. Dikötter is able to demonstrate that eugenics fell on fertile ground in China for at least two reasons. First--and we are reminded here of the unproblematic reception of Western medicine--eugenics proposed in scientific terms a promising phrasing and solution of problems known and notions cherished in China for many centuries, if not millennia. Second, eugenics answered the fears evoked by the special twentieth-century situation in China, where almost any path was attractive that seemed able to return the country to what was considered its ancient and deserved role in international power politics.

As a result, in the Chinese eugenics discourse we meet a thorough blend of arguments repeated from China's own past and modern concepts adopted from the West. Often the same nonchalance is at work...