Surveying for Salvation: The Social Survey Movement in China, 1900-1940

• In Event: 50460 - Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 4: Technologies of Governance

Abstract

Investigation and Research (diaocha yanjiu) is now celebrated as a "treasured legacy" of the Communist Party of China (CPC), with its theories and methods often attributed to Mao Zedong’s late 1920s efforts to expand the revolutionary force by investigating the socioeconomic conditions of rural areas. However, this valued Party tradition may have deeper historical roots. A decade before Mao’s rural investigations, Chinese social scientists were already employing social surveys as a means of national reconstruction and rejuvenation—a practice that paralleled trends in the United States, where surveys were widely used to identify and address social problems. In both the United States and China, this extraordinary commitment to collecting societal data was recognized as the hallmark of a "Social Survey Movement," a term coincidentally adopted in both countries. Notably, most surveys within these movements were initiated and conducted by non-state actors, including social scientists and charitable organizations, rather than government agencies. Nevertheless, these surveys often wielded social and political influence comparable to, or even greater than, that of national censuses. Despite these achievements, the Social Survey Movements in both countries lost momentum in the 1930s. While the United States transitioned toward large-scale, quantitative probability surveys, Chinese survey experts took a different path, shifting their focus to ethnographic approaches and prioritizing rural villages over urban areas. Building on this divergence, this article explores the rise and decline of the Chinese survey movement by examining the traits and practices of survey organizers and the sociopolitical context in which they were embedded, with a particular focus on their social positions, professional networks, responsibilities, expertise, and lasting impact on Chinese academia, politics, and society.

Author

• Yunpeng Chen, University of California-San Diego