Cholera And Social Responses In The Modern Northeast(1820-1911)

Cholera,as a Class A infectious disease,occupies an important position in the study of disease history,and most scholars have conducted in-depth and detailed analyses of cholera in a particular region,but throughout the scholarly work,little attention has been paid to cholera in the Northeast,and there is a lack of long-term studies,especially from 1820 to 1911,during which the basic spread of cholera in the Northeast remains unclear.Based on historical sources such as local chronicles,newspapers and archives,and the method used by Li Yushang et al.to distinguish between types of infectious diseases,the spread of cholera in the northeast from 1820 to 1911 can be generally clarified,including the spatial and temporal characteristics and the process of transmission.According to the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of cholera,the period of nearly a century from 1820-1911 is staged: 1820-1861 belongs to the early period of the introduction of cholera into the northeast,and this period also belongs to the period of the northeast closure,when cholera occurred only in one place;1862-1901 belongs to the period of concentrated outbreak of cholera in the northeast,when the frequency of cholera increased,but it spread only in the southern coastal area of Fengtian;1902-1911 the spread of cholera broke through provincial boundaries spatially and spread northwards to Jilin and Heilongjiang.From 1820 to 1911,cholera in the northeast generally showed a ’dynamic climb’,with the occurrence of cholera in the northeast increasing every 30 years until the1880 s,but after that,the cyclical pattern changed to a linear increasing pattern;spatially,the frequency of cholera varied widely from place to place,with cholera epidemics mainly concentrated in Yingkou,Zhuanghe,Heilongjiang In spatial terms,the frequency of cholera varies considerably from place to place,with cholera epidemics concentrated mainly in the Fengtian Prefecture areas of Yingkou,Zhuanghe and Haicheng.There are also some particular features of cholera in the north-east,such as the two ’extremes’ of cholera in the north-east and in the rest of the country between 1862 and 1874,when the national cholera outbreak was 100% consecutive,while the north-east cholera became ’silent’.The reason for this is not the usual natural conditions.The reasons for this go beyond the usual natural and sanitary conditions and point to deeper social factors,namely the economic development of the north-east at the time and the wave of migration.Cholera,the ’new’ virulent epidemic,was a powerful reality for the society of the north-east at the time,killing countless people and spreading social panic,as well as impacting on trade activities.In the face of such social upheaval,the government took responsibility for epidemic prevention,and there was a growing trend in the press for’hygiene’.Together,these two elements formed a positive aspect of epidemic prevention in the north-east during this period.At the same time,there were occasional clashes within the government,between the government and the private sector over the concept and process of epidemic prevention,and the increasingly ’soft’involvement of Japan and Russia in epidemic prevention and health care left the local government in a state of helplessness and dilemma.The frequent occurrence of cholera in modern Northeast China reveals its own intensity and complexity,and this article explores its spread,causes and the process of response by all parties,not narrowly in the context of ’health care’,but in an attempt to identify and highlight the multiple facets of society in the context of cholera.