Abstract
Despite the omnipresence of facemasks in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, recent studies on their sociopolitical aspects remain insufficient. This article conducts a genealogical study that investigates the emergence of two differing masking strategies in two epidemic events in Chinese history. First, during the Manchurian plague 1910/11, it shows how the germ theory and historical anecdotes made anti-plague masks thinkable and practicable as a solution not only for airborne contagion but also for the biopolitical problem of ‘unhygienic’ population. In the second part, the analytical focus is shifted to the emergence of collective mask-wearing practices during SARS 2002/03 from the vantage point of subjectification. Facemasks then became a symbol of care in the neoliberal regime of responsibilization. This article concludes by arguing for a rethinking of facemasks as actants who actively participate in the constitution of the world we share.
Highlights
If there is one object that symbolizes and crystalizes our collective experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is, without doubt, the facemask
This article has conducted a genealogical study of facemasks and has focused on the emergence of two differing masking strategies in China’s modern history of epidemic control
The proliferation of disposable and inexpensive surgical masks paved the way for the sudden appearance of a universal masking strategy during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic
Summary
If there is one object that symbolizes and crystalizes our collective experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is, without doubt, the facemask. It is a reflexive art of problematization that traces how power struggles and contingency are constitutive of the emergence of contemporary practices and institutions (Garland 2014: 372) In this sense, a genealogical study of masks does not intend to formulate a sweeping social theory of masking, but to develop some heuristic tools that make sense of and problematize present-day masking practices. This article focuses on socio-material conditions that give rise to the emergence of masking strategies in the Chinese history of epidemic control. Speaking, it examines two kinds of masking strategies: One that is implemented in a top-down manner and one that is initiated by the public ‘from below’.
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