{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]],"date-time":"2026-05-01T22:56:47Z","timestamp":1777676207250,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,17]],"date-time":"2024-03-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1710633600000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Clarendon Fund Scholarship, the St Antony\u2019s College Warden\u2019s Scholarship, and the Oxford-Taiwan Graduate Scholarship"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Hist Sci"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>This article examines the rise and decline of the enthusiasm for intelligence testing in early twentieth-century China, focusing on the appeal, the challenges, and the critiques revolving around this psychological instrument. The introduction of intelligence testing reflected not only China\u2019s urgent needs in modernizing its merit system, but also Chinese psychologists\u2019 aspirations for pursuing exactitude and redefining the racial characteristics of their compatriots against foreign interpretations. But despite psychologists\u2019 endeavors, the political and geographical fragmentation of Republican China troubled the epistemic imperative of uniformity demanded by Euro-American psychometrics and therefore undermined the validity of measurement. Subsequently, the legitimacy of intelligence testing began to be questioned by several influential Chinese psychologists in the late 1920s and 30s. The difficulties in standardization and the hostility within the psychology community formed a vicious cycle, impeding the progress of nationwide testing. Through this history, the article demonstrates not only the elevation of measurement to epistemic authority in modern China, but also how its promise was challenged by a diverse and rapidly changing society.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/00732753241235432","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,18]],"date-time":"2024-03-18T00:42:30Z","timestamp":1710722550000},"page":"73-100","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Struggling with exactitude in a fragmented state: Intelligence testing in early twentieth-century China"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"63","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5487-7743","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pang-Yen","family":"Chang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Oxford, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,17]]},"container-title":["History of Science"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/00732753241235432","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1177\/00732753241235432","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/00732753241235432","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T08:18:00Z","timestamp":1777450680000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/00732753241235432"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,17]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,3]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1177\/00732753241235432"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/00732753241235432","relation":{},"ISSN":["0073-2753","1753-8564"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0073-2753","type":"print"},{"value":"1753-8564","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,17]]}}}