The New Life Movement and the Politics of Hygiene

Focusing on the early years of the New Life Movement(1934-37), this paper re-examines the nature of the movement from the perspective of the ‘politics of hygiene’. Departing from the conventional view of the relationship between the New Life Movement and hygiene as a political movement that was used as a tool to legitimize the KMT’s rule, this study aims to show that modernity of hygiene also defined the content of the New Life Movement and drove its direction. This is in response to the need to unravel the inner logic of why the Kuomintang, faced with the challenge of nation-building amidst the internal and external exchange crisis, set the goal of the movement to reform people’s habits, including sanitation.<br/> To do so, this paper first examines the historical and ideological context in which the New Life Movement was launched as a hygiene movement, focusing on the new status given to hygiene in the 1930s, when the KMT began to assume its role as a national power.<br/> Next, while keeping in mind the relationship between the New Life Movement and hygiene discussed above, this paper approaches the actuality of the New Life Movement by analyzing the process of participation in the New Life Movement at Shengjinta elementary school in Nanchang. In doing so, it examines how the New Life Movement was practiced in the educational field in Nanchang, what distinctive features emerged in relation to the hygiene movement, and what implications the matter of hygiene has for understanding the New Life Movement. Finally, it evaluates the effectiveness of the New Life Movement as a hygiene movement aimed at reforming the habitus from various perspectives.