Who is the Modern Citizen: Diseases, Professions, and Identities in Guangxi and beyond, 1920 to 1950

Abstract

This dissertation studies how the discourse of citizenship became a tool for governance in the Republican era under public health regimes by examining the conceptualisation of disease and the development of medical professions in the 1930s and 1940s in Guangxi and beyond. From the late 1920s, the GMD government promoted an ideal citizenry based on the discourse of hygiene, patriotism and moral codes. The Guangxi government incorporated this ideal into strategies to prevent malaria, cholera and leprosy. It relied on the authority of science to justify the new ideas about the aetiology and methods for disease prevention. Through the creation of health regimes, disease prevention and staying healthy became obligations of citizens. This discourse of citizenship pushed patients to the margin. The experience of leprosy patients was an example. The patients used the same discourse to eliminate stigmas, yet its impact was limited. On the other hand, patients with neurasthenia not only avoided being implicitly marginalised, but also created modern identities for themselves. Political elites played an important role in making the discourse of neurasthenia a powerful tool to create a modern identity. Medical professionals also benefited from the discourse of citizenship. The medical practitioners in Guangxi improved their social status and established their professionalism by working with the government and demonstrating their patriotism, responsibility to society and advocation for science. Female nurses also demonstrated that they lived up to the criteria of ideal citizens to justify their taking nursing as an occupation. However, female nurses’ gender identity overshadowed their professional identity in public discussion. By studying the identities of patients and medical professionals, I establish that the boundary of citizenship was flexible in the Republican era under public health regimes, which compelled the literate classes to align their own goals with the ones of the government.