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The Many Values of Night Soil in Wartime China

Publication ,  Journal Article
Barnes, NE
Published in: Past and Present
April 22, 2023

In March 1940, leaders of the Chongqing night-soil trade union sent a petition to the governor of China’s Sichuan province to contest health officials’ attempts to seize the night-soil industry. Cleanliness in Chongqing, the national capital during the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–45), held profound significance for China’s hygienic modernity, but Nationalist authorities failed to ensure it. On their part, the petitioners failed to recognize the centrality of odour in health officials’ agenda. These joint failures left the wartime capital mired in muck. This article employs microhistorical analysis of the 1940 petition to highlight a significant shift in olfactory sensibility. Comparison with a similar instance in nearby Hankou eleven years later, when Communist cadres succeeded in breaking the local night-soil gang, elucidates key distinctions between the Nationalist and Communist states. The conclusion considers what might be possible if we imagine using night soil to fertilize soils not as an anti-modern practice but as a sustainable means of processing waste and caring for our planet. To regain a portion of night soil’s many values, we must conquer the obstacles of disease transmission and disgust. The former is a technical problem for which solutions already exist; the latter is a formidable social problem.

Duke Scholars

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Published In

Past and Present

DOI

EISSN

1477-464X

ISSN

0031-2746

Publication Date

April 22, 2023

Volume

259

Issue

1

Start / End Page

194 / 228

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Related Subject Headings

  • History
  • 4303 Historical studies
  • 2103 Historical Studies
  • 2002 Cultural Studies
 

Citation

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Barnes, N. E. (2023). The Many Values of Night Soil in Wartime China. Past and Present, 259(1), 194–228. https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtac021
Barnes, Nicole Elizabeth. “The Many Values of Night Soil in Wartime China.” Past and Present 259, no. 1 (April 22, 2023): 194–228. https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtac021.
Barnes NE. The Many Values of Night Soil in Wartime China. Past and Present. 2023 Apr 22;259(1):194–228.
Barnes, Nicole Elizabeth. “The Many Values of Night Soil in Wartime China.” Past and Present, vol. 259, no. 1, Oxford University Press (OUP), Apr. 2023, pp. 194–228. Crossref, doi:10.1093/pastj/gtac021.
Barnes NE. The Many Values of Night Soil in Wartime China. Past and Present. Oxford University Press (OUP); 2023 Apr 22;259(1):194–228.
Journal cover image

Published In

Past and Present

DOI

EISSN

1477-464X

ISSN

0031-2746

Publication Date

April 22, 2023

Volume

259

Issue

1

Start / End Page

194 / 228

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Related Subject Headings

  • History
  • 4303 Historical studies
  • 2103 Historical Studies
  • 2002 Cultural Studies