'A lucid example of original scholarship, stimulating ideas and analysis, and narrative elegance... Sex, Culture and Modernity is an immensely rewarding book to read. The materials it examines and the arguments it sets out are fascinating.' - Harriet Evans, Times Literary Supplement

'It was not so long ago that the cultural history of the Republican era in China (1911-1949) was little more than an explanatory backdrop to account for and contextualise first the rise, and than the ultimate triumph, of the Chinese Communist Party through a period of imperialist pressure, warlordism, anti-Japanese resistance and civil war. This truly exemplary study demonstrates that there are other, quite fascinating, tales that can be told of this period, and that they have more than local significance... Fortunately for the reader, Dikötter wears all this learning very lightly indeed. Again fortunately for the reader, he seems almost naively content to be intelligible, despite operating within a Foucauldian framework. The result is a readable and workmanlike presentation.' - Patricia Uberoi, The Book Review

'A wonderfully rich book... will serve as a base line for some time to come.' - William Jankowiak, China Quarterly

'Dikötter's combination of detailed empirical knowledge and cultural analysis makes this well-written book worth reading for a much wider public than just those interested in Chinese medical history during the early Republican period.' - Børge Bakken, The China Journal

'A powerful picture of official sexual ideology in the Republic and a classic exposition of the links between prurience, hygiene, sexual fear, and social change.' - Sheila Hillier, Social History of Medicine

'Written with verve, and highly readable (appositely illustrated too), it is an important intervention in debates which have as their aim nothing less than the dismantling of frameworks for the study of China.' - Craig Clunas, SOAS Bulletin