Plague prevention in Manchuria became an urgent matter both of public health and of politics in the 1920s and 1930s. If the virulent pneumonic plague could not be quarantined and suppressed, all North China and even nearby countries might be endangered. If China could not deal with the plague, Japan, Russia, and indeed the whole outside world might be justified in moving into Manchuria to do the job, and China's already limited sovereignty there could be further weakened.

Pandemic Re-Awakenings offers a multi-level and multi-faceted exploration of a century of remembering, forgetting, and rediscovering the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, arguably the greatest catastrophe in human history. Twenty-three researchers present original perspectives by critically investigating the hitherto unexplored vicissitudes of memory in the interrelated spheres of personal, communal, medical, and cultural histories in different national and transnational settings across the globe. The volume reveals how, even though the Great Flu was overshadowed by the commemorative culture of the Great War, recollections of the pandemic persisted over time to re-emerge towards the centenary of the 'Spanish' Flu and burst into public consciousness following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapters chart historiographical neglect (while acknowledging the often-unnoticed dialogues between scientific and historical discourses), probe silences, and trace vestiges of social and cultural memories that long remained outside of what was considered collective memory.