From Preparation To Implementation: The Modern Census In China (1936-1964)

It was an important transitional period from traditional agricultural society to modern industrial society for China in the first half of 20^th century.Modern census system was also established and grew mature in this period,which was an epitome of the establishment of modern government in China.In this article,the author tries to sort out the course of the establishment of modern census in China and seek its relation with population policy and census administration through the comparison between censuses in different periods.One of the purposes of this article is to offer a reference for others in judging the reliability of the statistics in modern censuses though the deep study on the census system.The other purpose is to get readers know more about the demographics at that time through the primary analysis on these statistics.