Reassessing the Mortality Impact of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in China

Author:

Shepherd John Robert1

Affiliation:

1. Anthropology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

Abstract

In accounts of the worldwide impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic, China remains a black hole of missing data. In the absence of systematically collected nationwide death statistics, scholars have used scattered and often impressionistic reports to suggest that the epidemic had only a mild impact in China and, in some cases, to raise the possibility that the epidemic originated in China. These works rely heavily on conclusions drawn from anecdotal reports of customs officers, a medical report from Canton, and uncritical use of Shanghai and Hong Kong crude death rates, which are shown herein to be seriously flawed or misstated. This article and its online supplement contribute to knowledge of the influenza epidemic in China by reassessing the available data on Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Canton and assessing hitherto neglected sources on seven majority-Chinese jurisdictions that enforced vital statistics reporting. The results refute the notion of a mild impact and show that the pandemic had an impact in most cases greater than that seen in Western countries like the United States and England and Wales.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Sociology and Political Science,History,Geography, Planning and Development

Reference94 articles.

1. Annual Report of the Shanghai Municipal Council (1871–1939). Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh.

2. Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance, 1896 (1912 [1896]). Accessed via Historical Laws of Hong Kong Online, https://oelawhk.lib.hku.hk/exhibits/show/oelawhk/home.

3. Ceylon Administration Reports [Report of the Registrar General on the Vital Statistics of the Current Year] (1916–1920). Columbo: Government Printer.

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3