Abstract
There has been little historical research into the history of mental hygiene in Republican China. Using popular magazines West Wind Monthly and West Wind Supplement, this article sets out to rectify this omission. With articles and columns especially designed to further the cause of mental hygiene movement in China, West Wind introduced a 'modern' and 'scientific' body of knowledge and technologies of self-cultivation. Their messages did reach some Chinese youths and altered their ways of understanding and managing themselves. Nevertheless, as resources were scarce in terms of personnel and social support, and as the Chinese society was constantly in turmoil, the real impact of this popular mental hygiene discourse remains to be determined. In many cases, the niceties of the characteristically psychological technologies of the self the two magazines worked hard to convey very often did not pass through, as their young readers were more interested in using West Wind as a platform for voicing collective distress and social critique, and for finding practical help in solving personal and interpersonal problems. It is concluded that the present study not only demonstrates the diversity of nation formation movements, of which the mental hygiene movement was a part, during the Republican era, but helps learn more about the transit of knowledge in a different cultural context.
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