This thesis is a study of Ningbo local elites through the lens of the social history of disease. It explores the strategies employed and identities constructed by local elites in response to the cholera epidemics that spread through the region between 1820 and 1926. Building on Charles Rosenberg’s insight into the relationship between framing disease and social actions, this research approaches cholera as a social issue through which the local elites can be viewed amidst societal transformation. Drawing on mixed sources of medical treatises, newspapers, local annals, and archives of Ningbo, it examines the roles elites played in the broader process of China’s social modernisation. This thesis finds that through the reinterpretation of cholera, local elites crafted an image as modern and scientifically enlightened actors. Meanwhile, they utilised the public crisis of cholera to promote these modern values as socially accepted norms, thereby reinforcing their elite status and further distinguishing themselves from the general populace. The research on cholera in Ningbo reveals that, prior to 1926, China’s path toward modernisation neither mirrored a top-down governmental initiative nor stemmed from a grassroots popular awakening. Rather, it unfolded as a unique process mediated by local elites, continually negotiating between diverse epistemological frameworks and the evolving expectations of society. As such, this study presents an alternative case in the social history of disease for understanding the unfolding of Chinese modernisation—in which Cholera became a pivotal intermediary in the elites envisioning of a modern nation and in the expansion of public authority within society.
Cholera and local elites in Ningbo during 1820–1926
Zhao, P. (Author). 15 Mar 2026
Student thesis: PhD Thesis