A Genealogical Study of Facemasks in China: From Hygienic Modernity to Care

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.