The Myth of Eugenics and Its Influences on Early Chinese Anthropology:A Case Study of Pan Guangdan,Wu Dingliang and Tao Yunkui
The concept of"ethnicity"often contains biological implications to some extent across the world.The knowledge system of eugenics,which emerged under the guise of science in the West,was one manifestation of this implication.In the 1920s and 1930s,three research centers for eugenics were active in the United Kingdom,the United States,and Germany.Pan Guangdan,Wu Dingliang,and Tao Yunkui,who studied in the three countries around the same period,absorbed the viewpoints and perspectives of the eugenic knowledge system to different degrees.Based on recent literature on the history of science from both Western and Chinese sources,this paper analyzes the academic influence of eugenics on early Chinese anthropology and explores why this Western movement failed to become phenomenal in the Republic of China.This study finds that Pan and his peers criticized the racist views inherent in eugenics while simultaneously accepted biological concepts of race and more moderate theories of racial difference.After it was introduced to China,eugenics failed to generate significant academic and social impacts,not only due to personnel and policy factors but also because the Chinese tradition,which emphasized culture over race,fundamentally rejected the core theories and values of eugenics.Furthermore,this paper elucidates the academic sources of Pan's anthropological thought from the perspective of eugenics and examines the racist elements within his theoretical ideas,providing important historical lessons for building an autonomous knowledge system in anthropology in China.
EugenicsPan GuangdanWu Dinglianghistory of anthropology
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