Building a Smoking Society: Culture and Ecology of the Tobacco
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BUILDING A SMOKING SOCIETY: CULTURE AND ECOLOGY OF THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY IN NORTH CHINA, 1902-1937 By SIKANG SONG A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of History MAY 2017 © Copyright by SIKANG SONG, 2017 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by SIKANG SONG, 2017 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of SIKANG SONG find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. ______________________________________ David A. Pietz, Ph.D., Chair ___________________________________ Jeffrey C. Sanders, Ph.D., Co-Chair ___________________________________ Heather E. Streets-Salter, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Noriko Kawamura, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my advisor Dr. David A. Pietz for his continuous support of my research and life, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and invaluable knowledge. Without his guidance and persistent help, this dissertation would not have been possible. I also would like to express my immense gratitude to my committee members, Dr. Jeffery C. Sanders, Dr. Heather E. Streets-Salter, and Dr. Noriko Kawamura, whose expertise and dedication to Environmental History, World History, and East Asian Studies inspired me greatly. Their assistance and knowledge accompanied me on my graduate career at Washington State University. I am also very grateful for the WSU History Department and Graduate School providing me years of financial assistance for my study and living in Pullman. Especially, the Claudius O. and Mary W. Johnson Research Fellowship and the Conney Family Graduate Fellowship from the History Department supported my travels to China and allowed me to gather historical records and sources for my research in various locations there. Furthermore, I appreciate mentorship and friendship from the History Department faculty and staff. For professors who taught the many courses I took as a graduate student and those who I worked with as a teaching assistant, I thank them for providing me with academically rigorous coursework and giving me the opportunity to learn a variety of teaching techniques. I am fortunate to have their guidance: Dr. Frank Hill, Dr. Ray Sun, Dr. Jess Spohnholz, Dr. Xiuyu Wang, Dr. Joel Tishken, Dr. Theresa Jordan, Dr. Ken Faunce, and Dr. Karoline Cook. Special thanks to Dr. Roger Chan, Dr. Lydia Gerber, and Dr. Ai Wang for their years of support of my study, writing, teaching, and personal life. For the staff of the History Department, I thank them for helping me numerous iii times with their expertise and unending patience: Ken Anderson, Pat Thorsten-Mickelson, Lauri Sue Torkelson, and Pam Guptill. Lastly, a special heartfelt thank you to my parents for their endless and unselfish love and support. iv BUILDING A SMOKING SOCIETY: CULTURE AND ECOLOGY OF THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY IN NORTH CHINA, 1902-1937 Abstract by Sikang Song, Ph.D. Washington State University May 2017 Chairs: David A. Pietz and Jeffrey C. Sanders In 1902, the British-American Tobacco Company (BAT), an American multinational corporation, began its business expansion in China by mass marketing machine-rolled cigarettes to Chinese consumers, thereby systematically establishing a modern tobacco industry centered on cigarette manufacturing. Throughout the early twentieth century, BAT monopolized China’s cigarette market and consequently transformed Chinese tobacco production and consumption towards cigarettes. In particular, from 1912 to 1937, to fulfill its high demand for cheap local- grown raw materials, BAT introduced American bright tobacco into the agriculture of the North China Plain. In doing so it established three tobacco growing bases in Eastern Shandong, Central Henan, and Northern Anhui. This turn led to the formation of a commodity chain of the cigarette in China that reached from the tobacco fields in North China to its cigarette factories in major cities and ultimately to consumers all over China. The establishment of this commodity chain left significant environmental impacts on Chinese agriculture as the tobacco cultivation and peasants’ livelihood in North China were linked to the globalizing industrial economy. At the same time, the v Western consumer culture that came with BAT’s mass marketing operations changed millions of Chinese smokers’ consumption habits. This dissertation explores the modern transformation of Chinese tobacco from 1902 to 1937, the period when international forces reshaped China’s tobacco production and consumption by introducing bright tobacco cultivation, cigarette manufacturing, and the Western consumer culture of cigarette smoking. Thematically, this research documents the ecological changes to agriculture in North China and the development of the Chinese cigarette industry. It pays equal attention to the cultural aspects involved, as the clash between the modern consumer culture and traditional Chinese values constructed new meanings for cigarette smoking. By presenting a detailed and comprehensive examination of environmental, economic, and socio-cultural dynamics of Chinese tobacco during the early twentieth century, I conclude that BAT’s efforts in building a modern “smoking society” before 1937 laid down the foundations for the “massification” of the cigarette in China during the second half of the twentieth century. vi NOTES ON UNITS OF MEASURMENTS The following conversions from Chinese measurements into the metric values show only approximations. In the Republican period (1912-1949), certain considerable variations occurred in some localities. Refer to citations for the specific variations. Length units 1 li = 576 m 1 zhang = 3.2m 1 chi = 0.32 m Weight Units 1 shi (picul) = 50 kg 1 jin (catties) = 0.5 kg Capacity Units 1 sheng = 1000 ml Volume Units 1 fang = 1 m³ Area Units 1 mu = 614.4 m² 1 qing = 100 mu = 61440 m² vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ v NOTES ON UNITS OF MEASURMENTS ..................................................................... vii LIST OF MAPS ................................................................................................................. ix LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. x LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 1. GOING CIGARETTES ............................................................................................ 18 2. MAKING TOBACCO BRIGHT .............................................................................. 61 3. CIGARETTE INDUSTRY AND ALTERED LIVELIHOOD ............................... 102 4. SHIFTING TOBACCO CULTURE ....................................................................... 148 5. “TOBACCO CAPTIAL”: A CASE STUDY OF THE “SMOKING SOCIETY” .. 200 EPILOGUE ................................................................................................................. 238 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 244 viii LIST OF MAPS 1. Map 2.1 ............................................................................................................................ 79 2. Map 2.2 ............................................................................................................................ 80 3. Map 2.3 ............................................................................................................................ 81 ix LIST OF TABLES 1. Table 1.1 .......................................................................................................................... 51 2. Table 3.1 ........................................................................................................................ 109 x LIST OF FIGURES 1. Figure 4.1....................................................................................................................... 165 2. Figure 4.2....................................................................................................................... 165 3. Figure 4.3....................................................................................................................... 165 4. Figure 4.4....................................................................................................................... 166 5. Figure 4.5....................................................................................................................... 166 6. Figure 4.6....................................................................................................................... 167 7. Figure 4.7....................................................................................................................... 167 8. Figure 4.8....................................................................................................................... 167 9. Figure 4.9......................................................................................................................