Table of contents:

About the author(s):

Description:

This research examines the anti-cigarette campaigns in early 20^th century China. These campaigns did not oppose tobacco use in general, but specifically targeted cigarette smoking. Scattered anti-cigarette arguments and activities appeared as early as in 1899. On one hand, conservative Qing officials opposed cigarettes as a symbol of Westernization, when they attempted to halt the Westernization trend after the 1898 Reform. On the other hand, anti-smoking rhetoric based on modern Western medical knowledge also entered China.

This book focuses on three campaigns that are comparatively the best documented and most representative of anti-cigarette campaigns. The first one was organized by Edward Thwing, an American protestant missionary, in Tianjin in 1910. The second was launched by Wu Tingfang, a retired Qing official, in Shanghai in 1911. The last campaign was a part of the New Life Movement initiated by Chiang Kai-shek in 1934 and most forcefully implemented in Zhejiang. These campaigns illustrate three types led respectively by foreign missionaries, Chinese social elites, and government agents. Moreover, this research also contributes to our understanding of the social-political environment at the time of the important historical moments when the anti-cigarette campaigns took place, namely the eve of the 1911 Revolution and the heyday of the Nationalist regime in the mid-1930s.   

Contents

Introduction

Chapter I:

Protestant Missionaries and the Origin of the Anti-Cigarette Campaigns in China, 1910

Chapter II

The Urban Social Elite and the Voluntary Anti-Cigarette Campaign in Shanghai, 1911

Chapter III

Cigarettes in the Central Design of the New Life Movement, 1934-1935

Chapter IV

Anti-cigarette Campaign in Zhejiang: Local Implementation and Variations, 1934-1935

Conclusion