Chinese Environmental History Newsletter
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CHINESE ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY NEWSLETTER Issue 3:1, May 1996 This newsletter may be freely photocopied; however, authors’ rights must be respected. ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── From the Editor of the newsletter. Daniels, who reports on the experience of a Lahu hill-dwelling community, depicts the nature The newsletter, alive and well in its third year, proudly reserve as depriving minority villages of access to resources presents three articles, while a first contribution to the crucial to their way of life. Grinspoon, by contrast, did her prospective “Teaching Ideas and Experience” section has fieldwork among the Dai, who are the largest of the minority been held over to the next issue. Submissions for the next two issues, whether brief research reports, abstracts of papers presented, or longer mini-articles, are eagerly ──────────────────────────────────────── encouraged. Contributions by graduate students are especially welcome. The word-limit for mini-articles has Chinese Environmental History been raised to an absolute maximum of 4,000 words. Newsletter 3:1, May 1996 The first two articles in this issue both raise the unpleasant topic of disease. Carol Benedict establishes Contents disease history firmly within the scope of environmental history by showing how the history of plague in late Page imperial China cannot be understood without pinpointing Noticeboard when, where, how, and why Han Chinese intruded into the (professional associations; calls for papers; wilderness areas where plague is enzootic. Benedict argues other conference and workshop information that, given the difficulties of “diagnosing” past disease (including paper abstract); publications; outbreaks on the basis of descriptions of the symptoms, fellowships; Internet — WWW and discussion historians must take recent research on the ecology of plague group — addresses) 2 in China into account when trying to establish that a particular past epidemic was or was not plague. Her article Epidemiology and History: An Ecological has important implications for historians seeking to identify Approach to the History of Plague plague epidemics in earlier periods of Chinese history, and in Qing China by Carol Benedict 6 challenges them first to determine what differences there were (if any) in the distribution of plague “reservoirs” in The Making of the Pearl River Delta by earlier times — no easy task. Robert B. Marks 10 Malaria is not the central focus of Robert Marks’s article, but it plays an important part in the story that he tells. The Political Ecology of Forest Marks is interested in the formation of the Pearl River Delta, Conservation in Xishuangbanna (I) The in the far south of China. He argues that the delta was View from a Dai Village by Elisabeth man-made in two senses; first, indirectly, through the Grinspoon deposition of topsoil dislodged by Chinese farmers from the 15 hills of northern Guangdong and Guangxi, carried south by rivers, and channelled into the Pearl River Estuary as a result Update to Directory of Subscribers 18 of flood control works in the Song; and second through the direct labours of farmers migrating south after the Mongol Submission and Subscription conquest and deliberately turning estuarine “sand bars” of Information 20 riverborne sediment into fertile fields. Malaria helps ──────────────────────────────────────── explain the time-lag between the first arrival of Chinese settlers in the north part of the region, and their later activity in reshaping the south for agriculture. It took time for Han peoples in an autonomous prefecture bearing the Dai name. Chinese to overcome fear of malaria in the lowland south This may account for the happier experience of the sufficiently to grapple with the environmental conditions communities she visited in dealing with the reserve that gave rise to it. management bureaucracy. In this instalment, she tells us Our third contribution, by Elisabeth Grinspoon, is the part of what she saw. Her closing paragraphs suggest an first instalment of a two-part article revisiting the analysis converging at one point with that of Daniels, but Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve and its effect upon the lives examining the problem in a new and different framework. of local minority peoples. Grinspoon tells a story very She will take up that analysis in Part II. different from that told by Christian Daniels in the last issue England SUBSCRIPTION REMINDER (for hard-copy subscribers E-mail: [email protected] outside the PRC). Subscriptions for 1996 are now due. Fax: 44-191-374-3242 The standard rate has been reduced, and now stands at Copy deadlines are mid-January, mid-May, and US$8.00 plus a voluntary $2.00-donation to help cover the mid-September. cost of mailing to the PRC. Other details will be found at See also under “Internet addresses” for listserver the end of the newsletter. discussion group. Noticeboard Calls for Papers Professional Associations Biennial Meeting of the American Society for the History of the Environment, Baltimore, March 5th-9th, 1997 Paper and panel proposals are invited for the above meeting. New Association for the Study of Asian Environmental Especially encouraged are proposals addressing the role of History government and/or science in environmental affairs, A new association for the study of Asian environmental although proposals on all aspects of human interaction with history was founded at the 1996 meeting of the Association the environment over time are welcome. There is special for Asian Studies in Hawaii. Those interested in joining eagerness for interdisciplinary, comparative, and should contact: international perspectives. Preference will be given to Peter C. Perdue proposals for complete panels, although individual paper History Faculty, E51-210 proposals will be accepted. Massachusetts Institute of Technology A proposal consists of six copies of each of the 77 Massachusetts Avenue following: Cambridge MA 02139 1. A cover sheet with the full name and affiliation of each U.S.A. panel participant and the session and paper titles; E-mail: [email protected] 2. An abstract of up to 100 words setting out the purpose of the session; 3. An abstract of each paper (up to 250 words per paper). East Asian Archaeology Network 4. A C.V. of up to two pages for each participant, The East Asian Archaeology Network headquarters have including address and telephone number(s). moved. Enquiries about membership and subscription Postmark deadline for submission is August 1st 1996. rates should be addressed to the Treasurer: Proposals should be sent to Jeffrey Stine, from whom further Prof. Sarah M. Nelson information may be sought. His address is: Dept. of Anthropology National Museum of American History University of Denver MRC 629 2130 South Race Street Smithsonian Institution Denver CO 80208 Washington D.C. 20560 U.S.A. U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected] Any CEHN subscriber looking for partners for a panel Fax: 1-303-871-2201 proposal is invited to make use of CEHN’s e-mail There are separate treasurers for China, Japan, and distribution network after June 14th. The editor will Korea. The address of the China Treasurer is: forward suitably worded announcements including Yang Jianjun prospective panel title, the prospective convener’s contact Liaoning Provincial Archaeological Research information (i.e. address, etc.), and a statement (any length Institute within reason) of the rationale for the proposal. Liaoning Provincial Museum Shenyang Liaoning Conference on Economic Development and Environ- China mental Protection in China and Europe, Aachen, Information for the network newsletter, Autumn 1997 This conference will be convened by the China Research EAANnouncements, should be sent to the editor (and Group, Department of Sociology, Aachen University of network President): Technology. The central focus will be on the relationship Prof. G. L. Barnes between economic development and problems connected East Asian Studies with the destruction of the environment, with their social, University of Durham economic and political consequences. There will be four Durham DH1 3TH 2 panels: Contact: Panel One. The attitudes of people in China and Europe to The Institute of Social Sciences, Siberian Branch environmental questions, focussing especially on the Russian Academy of Sciences question of whether awareness of the environment is Ulitsa Sakhyanova 6 developing in China, and if so on what basis. Ulan-Ude 670042 Panel Two. The problems of pollution arising from Russia China’s present rapid economic growth, focussing Tel.: 301-22-372-16 or 330-42 especially on how long the environment will be able to Fax: 301-22-632-44, Box 057 suffer such pollution, and related questions of sustainability. Wetland Archaeology Conference, Copenhagen, Sep- Panel Three. Such problems as the rapid development of tember 13th-18th, 1996 Chinese cities and the resulting pressures on water supply Contact: Mogens Schou Jørgensen and waste management, the social effects of migration, and RAS the use of scarce agricultural land for industrial purposes. National Museum of Denmark Panel Four. The extent of commitment to implementing Frederiksholms Kanal 12 existing legislation on environmental protection in China; DK-1220 Copenhagen K the global implications of China’s environmental problems; Denmark the applicability of European experience in learning to Fax: 45-33-93-26-71 grapple with environmental problems; and assessment of the experience gained through