Recent years have seen increasing interest in using the STS lens to evaluate the nature of social knowledge and how it is produced. How can we apply the methods that STS scholars have used to understand (natural) scientific principles to broaden our understanding of social knowledge? Unsatisfied with the traditional analysis of social knowledge, some scholars are drawing attention to the less-studied dimensions of this field: daily practices of social knowledge making, evaluation, and use within or beyond the academy (e.g., Camic, Gross, and Lamont 2011). Tong Lam's fascinating book, A Passion for Facts: Social Surveys and the Construction of the Chinese Nationstate. 1900-1949, is a welcome contribution to this endeavor. More than that, it also complicates the theorization as well as the history of social knowledge by situating it in a global context and colonial condition.
