"Scientific" practices of truth : the culture of criminal detection in modern China (1890-1949)
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation offers a cultural study of the epistemology of criminal investigation in Republican China. Chinese detective fiction and the practices of criminal investigation during the Republican period were conventionally considered as espousing the Western epistemology of modern science and promoted the objective methods to produce the truth of a crime. However, the idea of science in these discussions was often taken for granted as if it is a self-evident concept. This dissertation explores how the "scientific methods of crime detection" were conceptualized and represented in both fictional and actual cases during the Republican period. Through a close reading of various genres including the Chinese detective stories, news coverages on real crimes, and the textbooks for police and espionage training, I argue that under the rubric of "science, " the methods of crime detection deployed in both fictional and actual cases were also formed by romantic fantasies of science, the common sense of social norms and rules, and judgments on moral character that was rooted in imperial Chinese legal culture. By revealing how popular literature shaped and was shaped by actual practice in crime detection, this dissertation demonstrates how a capillary mechanism of power was exercised by a civic agent of justice beyond the state apparatus during the Republican period. In this way, this interdisciplinary study sheds light on the shifting paradigms of crime control that complicates the relationship between aesthetics, knowledge, and power in modern China
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2019; ©2019 |
| Publication date | 2019; 2019 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Peng, Wei, (Graduate student) |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Wang, Ban, 1957- |
| Thesis advisor | Wang, Ban, 1957- |
| Thesis advisor | Egan, Ronald, 1948- |
| Thesis advisor | Lee, Haiyan |
| Thesis advisor | Ma, Jean, 1972- |
| Degree committee member | Egan, Ronald, 1948- |
| Degree committee member | Lee, Haiyan |
| Degree committee member | Ma, Jean, 1972- |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Wei Peng |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2019 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2019 by Wei Peng
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...