Anchored in debates about statistics and its relationship to state building, Making It Count offers fresh perspectives on China’s transition to socialism.
The event was part of the Asian Futures Seminar Series.
20 May 2021
Making It Count
Statistics and Statecraft in the Early People's Republic of China
Recording of the talk and book discussion with Arunabh Ghosh, Harvard University
Discussant: Mikkel Bunkenborg
Conveners: Ravinder Kaur and Jørgen Delman
15 April 2021
Arunabh Ghosh is a historian of modern China, with research and teaching interests in social and economic history, history of science and statecraft, transnational history, and China-India history.
About the book
In 1949, at the end of a long period of wars, one of the biggest challenges facing leaders of the new People’s Republic of China was how much they did not know. The government of one of the world’s largest nations was committed to fundamentally reengineering its society and economy via socialist planning while having almost no reliable statistical data about their own country. Making It Count is the history of efforts to resolve this “crisis in counting.” Drawing on a wealth of sources culled from China, India, and the United States, Arunabh Ghosh explores the choices made by political leaders, statisticians, academics, statistical workers, and even literary figures in attempts to know the nation through numbers.
The book
Read more on the publisher's website.
Princeton University Press