Article ID: CBB079283075

The Evolution of Social Darwinism in China, 1895–1930 (2022)

unapi

This paper investigates the development of social Darwinism in China from the mid-1890s to 1930 vis-à-vis its ties with social Darwinism in the West, employing a comparative analysis of Spencer, Huxley, and Yan Fu. A form of evolutionism that envisioned a cosmological order based upon strength was transformed into a component of power politics in Republican China, despite unsuccessful political endeavors that illustrated both the triumphs and social malfunctions of evolutionary ideas. From the late 1910s, a new variety of social Darwinism arose alongside the scientific one, reflecting the influence of Kropotkin and de Vries, as Chinese thinkers incorporated non-Anglophone texts. The theories that emerged made sense of the changing Chinese adaptations of evolutionary thinking by contextualizing and modifying them within the intellectual and political dynamics inside China and also in China’s evolving relationship with capitalism and imperialism.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB079283075/

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Authors & Contributors
Wu, Shellen Xiao
Andréolle, Donna Spalding
Bala, Poonam
Cheang, Sarah
Delmas, Catherine
Erickson, Paul A.
Journals
American Historical Review
History of Science
Journal of British Studies
Journal of Global History
Journal of the History of Biology
Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Publishers
Harvard University
Princeton University
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Lexington Books
Palgrave Macmillan
Concepts
Imperialism
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Colonialism
Science and politics
Capitalism
Social Darwinism
People
Asajiro, Oka
Richthofen, Ferdinand von
Conrad, Joseph
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
18th century
20th century
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Places
China
Great Britain
Africa
India
Germany
Japan
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