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THE SCIENCE OF THE SPIRIT
Psychical Research, Medicine and the Occult in Chinese Modernity
Based on my Wellcome-funded PhD research, my first book, The Science of the Spirit: Psychical Research, Medicine and the Occult in Chinese Modernity, delves into the transnational history of psychical research and its subsequent development as xinling kexue 心靈科學 (Spiritual Science) in Republican China (1912–1949).
Originating in the United Kingdom in the late 19th century, psychical research was an emerging field of study concerned with the scientific investigation of phenomena perceived as ‘abnormal’, ‘strange’ or ‘occult’, such as animal magnetism, hypnotism, mediumship, ritual healing and extrasensory perception.
Following the establishment of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in London in 1882, the discipline spread rapidly across intellectual and scientific communities in Europe, North and Latin America, the Middle East and East Asia.
Psychical research had a decisive impact on the formation of modern scientific disciplines, particularly within the realms of medicine and the psychological sciences, as it challenged purely materialistic views of reality while questioning traditional religious orthodoxy.
Psychical research was introduced into China from Japan and Western countries in the early 1900s, and by the late-1910s it was already causing a sensation amongst Chinese reformers concerned with the course of Chinese modernity and their country’s place on the global stage.
My monograph takes a transnational perspective to explore the unique process whereby the Chinese adopted and adapted psychical research to address specific societal challenges in their pursuit of modernity.
The central question guiding this exploration is:
'How did a new science initially promoted by only a few individuals eventually become a widespread cultural phenomenon practised and known by thousands of people?'
Utilising previously untapped sources – including private archives, illustrations and artefacts – and engaging with scholarship in seven languages, I analyse the factors that sparked such enthusiasm amongst Chinese reformers for psychical research and the discipline’s lasting impact on Chinese approaches to healthcare and religious experience.
I argue that the Chinese engagement with psychical research must be seen as the dynamic interplay between local Chinese interests and a global wave of late 19th– to mid-20th-century movements that denounced Western modernity as overly materialistic, violent and devoid of moral values.
My research marks the first in-depth study in any language of how psychical research unfolded on Chinese soil.
Stepping away from simplistic notions of knowledge transfer, passive adoption and national boundaries, I argue that the Chinese engagement with psychical research must be seen as the dynamic interplay between local Chinese interests and a global wave of late 19th– to mid-20th-century movements that denounced Western modernity as overly materialistic, violent and devoid of moral values.
I contend that the Chinese embrace of psychical research transcended artificial dichotomies like China/West, religion/science or tradition/modernity, representing a nuanced negotiation among communities with varied understandings of science, medicine and religion. In doing so, I refute prevailing narratives that portray Chinese modernity as an outright rejection of tradition and spirituality.
Indeed, this appropriation of the psychic sciences disrupted the conventional boundaries between science, religion and superstition, fostering an alternative vision of modernity during the Republican era – one that valued tradition and the mental aspects of reality as the foundation for a materially advanced and spiritually prosperous ‘new China’.
