CHINESE ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY NEWSLETTER
Issue 2:2, November 1995
This newsletter may be freely photocopied.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

From the Editor
This issue of the newsletter contains three
thought-provoking articles.
Kenneth Pomeranz has
contributed what many readers may find a provocative piecearguing—with statistical data—that we must be more careful
about the historical conditions to which we apply the term“environmental crisis.” Specifically, he casts doubt on theidea that much of eighteenth-century China was alreadysuffering such crisis. He also suggests that comparison ofeighteenth-century China’s situation with that ofeighteenth-century Europe makes China look less peculiarly
environmentally depleted than many writers have assumed.
Christian Daniels, by contrast, introduces tough issuesof conscience for contemporary conservationists—but in a
way that shows how understanding of the history of
non-Han swidden farmers contributes to consideration of
their rights today. Drawing partly on personal observation,
he argues that the establishment of nature reserves hasdenied non-Han people access to resources necessary for
maintaining their traditional way of life, and sapped thecommitment to environmental preservation that they
themselves showed in times past. He suggests that the best
hope for the future lies in compromise: relaxing some of therestrictions in their favour will not only serve the cause ofjustice but help win back their hearts for conservation.
There is a Chinese precedent for combining
environmentalist commitment with sensitivity to the needsof minority peoples. The Confucian scholar Niu Yunzhen,
while a Gansu county magistrate in the mid-eighteenth
century, envisaged that although one forest area in his
jurisdiction should be closed completely, and commercial
logging in another carefully controlled, the local non-Hanpeople’s need for access to a third important conservation
zone should be met through short-term open periods. He
consulted the Aboriginal Office head (presumably a
non-Han traditional leader) in drawing up his conservationplans; heeded the latter’s comments on the non-Hanpeople’s needs; and imposed no restrictions on woodcutting
and charcoal-burning in designated forests of importance forthe non-Han people’s livelihood, but in no special need ofstate environmentalist protection.*
The third article in this issue of the newsletter is a short
but intriguing piece by Philippe Forêt on the “humanizing”
of the Antarctic landscape by the First Chinese Expedition to
Antarctica. Readers are invited to consider what may belearned by contemplating the superimposition ofgeomantically-loaded names like “Wanglong yan” on alandscape already “humanized” British-style with the names“King George Island”, “Nelson Island”, and “Drake
Passage.”────────────────────────────────────────

Chinese Environmental History
Newsletter 2:2, November 1995
Contents
Page
Noticeboard(conferences and workshops;
publications; jobs and fellowships;
Internet (WWW) addresses)

2

How Exhausted an Earth? Some Thoughts
on Qing (1644–1911) Environmental
History by Kenneth Pomeranz

6

Environmental Degradation, Forest
Protection and Ethno-History in Yunnan(III): Nature Reserves and Non-Han
Swidden Cultivators by ChristianDaniels

10

How the Chinese Discovered the Ice:
China’s First Expedition to Antarctica,
1984–85, by Philippe Forêt

13

Thesis Abstract Section“Demography and Development: Chinese
Traditional Agriculture in Historical
Perspective” by Wang Jiange

15

Update to Directory of Subscribers

16

Submission and Subscription Information18────────────────────────────────────────
There is one sad thing about the specially-written
contributions to this issue, viz. that, despite their excellence,
there are only three of them.
The newsletter is
encountering a common problem of new publications: thenumber of people willing to write for it in no way matches
the number who have enthusiastically hailed its appearance.
In fact, if all those who have expressed tentative interest in
writing for the May edition are indeed able to find time to do
Page 1so, the next issue should be a bumper one. However,please do not let them have all the glory; your newsletterneeds YOU!
Finally, the editor hopes it is not too obnoxious to ask
hard-copy subscribers to express their faith in the future of
the newsletter by renewing their subscriptions.
Subscriptions notionally fall due on January 1st, although
the editor will refrain from sending runners out to beat latepayers. Nor will she send reminders. The newsletter will
be sent to all who have renewed by April 30th.
Subscription information is at the end of the newsletter.
The Chinese-language version of the present issue isbeing prepared by Liu Wenyun of MIT. Thanks are dueboth to her and to Peter Perdue (MIT) and Wu Kegang(University of Liverpool) for invaluable assistance.
Note*
He Changling and Wei Yuan, comps., Huangchao jingshi
wenbian (1827; reprint of 1873 edn., Taibei: Shijie shuju,
1964), 38:10a–b.

Noticeboard
Conferences and Workshops
International Conference on Historical Geography,
Peking University, July 15th–20th, 1996
This conference is sponsored by The Committee on
Historical Geography of the Chinese Geographical
Association. Papers may be proposed in all areas ofhistorical geography; especially welcome, however, areproposals relating to historical geographical theories andmethods, the historical geography of China, and thesustainable development of Beijing. 600-word abstracts
are due by December 31st, 1995. The conference fee is
US$200.00, plus $100 for excursions in and around Beijing.
Those wishing to attend should write as soon as possible to:Professor Han GuanghuiCentre of Historical Geography
Department of Geography
Peking University
Beijing
100871(Fax: 861-2501187)
IGBP-PAGES/PEP-II Nagoya Symposium on Palaeoclimate and Environmental Variability in Austral-AsianTransect during the Past 2,000 Years.
NagoyaUniversity, Nov. 28th-Dec. 1st, 1995
This conference, open to the international scientificcommunity, will address “climatic reconstruction from treerings, ice cores, historical documents, terrestrial deposits,lake sediments, corals” and other proxies. The proceedings
will be published during 1996. For further information,
contact:

Page 2

Dr. T. Sweda
General Secretary, IGBP Nagoya Symposium
Nagoya University
Chikusa
NagoyaJapan 464-01(Fax: 81-52-789-4012)
Papers likely to be of particular interest to readers of
this newsletter include—but are by no means limited to—thefollowing. Please note that some titles may be tentative.
The following list draws both on the provisional programmeand on the authors’ abstracts; in the case of discrepancies,
the abstracts have been followed. Any resulting inaccuracy
is regretted.
A. Abe (University of Tokyo), “Sensitivity of Austral-Asian
Climates to Carbon Dioxide and Solar Forcing: aPreliminary Work by CCSR/NIES GCM”
An Zhisheng (Xi’an Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary
Geology) and L. G. Thompson, “Palaeoclimatic Change of
Monsoonal China Linked to Global Change”
D. Eckstein (University of Hamburg), “Reconstruction ofRainfall in Thailand over the Last Three Centuries”
Ge Quansheng (Institute of Geography, Chinese Academyof Sciences) et al., “Reconstruction and Relative Variability
Analysis of Annual and Seasonal Precipitation Series inFourteen Stations of China since 1736 A.D.”
Guo Zhengtang (Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences) et al., “High Frequency Pulses of East Asian
Monsoon Climate during the Last and Penultimate
Glaciations: Link with the North Atlantic”
Li Chunsheng (Henan College of Education), “Holocene
Beachrock in Lianyungang, Jiangsu, and its Palaeogeographic Significance”
Li Lung-an (Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica)
et al., “A Statistical Analysis of Taiwan Precipitation:
Influence of ENSO and Volcanic Events”
Liew Ping-mei (National Taiwan University) et al.,“Climatic Fluctuations during the Last Several Millennia
Indicated by Lake Sediments of Taiwan”
T. Liu (Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
and PAGES/PEP-II), “Loess and Global Changes:
Significance of PEP-II Transect” (keynote address)
R. K. Mazari (Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology),“Palaeoclimatic Scenario of Last 2,000 Years inTrans-Himalayan Upper Spiti”

T. Mikami (Tokyo Metropolitan University), “Climate of the
Little Ice Age in Japan Reconstructed from Historical
Documents”

Zhang Wanchang (Nagoya University) et al., “Ice Core
Analysis for Reconstruction of the Past Environment on
Highland Tibetan Plateau”

Morishima Wataru (Tokyo Metropolitan University),“Interannual Variations of Summer Rainfall over the AsianRegion”

Zhang Xinshi and Zhou Guangsheng (Institute of Botany,
Chinese Academy of Sciences), “China’s Transects for
PEP-II Studies”

Ren Guoyu (National Climate Centre, Beijing), “Pollen
Evidence for the Increased Summer Rainfall in theMediaeval Warm Period at Maili, Northeast China”

Q. Zhao, (Institute of Soil Science ), “A Preliminary Studyon Red Earth and Changes of Quaternary Environment inSouth China”

Y. Tagami (Toyama University), “Reconstruction of
Climate in the Mediaeval Warm Period [in Japan]”Open Science Meeting on Land-Use and Land-CoverChange, Amsterdam, January 1966
The purpose of this meeting is to discuss a scientific plan
focussing on global changes in land cover and land use. It
appears that funds may be available to facilitate theparticipation of regional specialists (e.g. specialists on
China). As more detailed information arrived when thisnewsletter was already in “page proof” form, please turn to
the last page, under the heading “Stop press.”

M. Tang (Lanzhou Institute of Plateau Atmospheric Physics),“On the Tibet Plateau as a ‘Pilot Region’ of the Climate
Variation in East Asia”
Wang Shaowu et al. (Department of Geophysics, Peking
University), “Global Temperature Changes during the Last
Millennium”
Wang Sumin et al. (Nanjing Institute of Geography and
Limnology), “Lake Record of Environment Evolution ofEastern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau in the Past 2,000 Years: A
Case Study of Ximen Co”
Wen Qizhong (Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry),“Climate Changes during the Last 2,000 Years in Xinjiang
Region of China”
Wu Xiangding and Shao Xuemei (Institute of Geography,
Chinese Academy of Sciences), “Reconstruction of Climate
in the Changbei Mts., Northeast China, since A.D. 1600”
T. Yao (Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology),“Asian Dust Transportation and Global Coupling System
Revealed from Ice Core Record”
K. Yasue et al. (Hokkaidō University), “Reconstruction ofSummer Temperature and Precipitation in Northern
Hokkaidō back to A.D. 1700 Using Tree-Ring Maximum
Density of Picea Glehnii”
T. Yasunari (Tsukuba University), “Changing Climate overEast Asia during the Past 100 Years”
Zhang De’er (National Climate Centre, Beijing), “Palaeoclimate and Environmental Records Available from Chinese
Historical Documents”
Zhang Peiyuan (Institute of Geography, Chinese Academyof Sciences) et al., “Analysis of Climate Data in Chinese
Historical Documents”“Landscape, Culture, and Power in Chinese Society”:
University of California at Berkeley, March 8th-9th,
1996
This “two-day seminar” is sponsored by U.C. Berkeley’s
Center for Chinese Studies. For further information,
contact:
Professor Yeh Wen-hsin
Center for Chinese Studies
2223 Fulton Street, Rm. 503
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley CA 94720-2328(Tel.: 510-643-6321)
Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies(U.S.A.), Honolulu, April 11th–14th, 1996
The following panels and “round tables” seem the most
likely to be interesting to subscribers to this newsletter.
Any heroic soul who would be willing to compile a reporton some or all of these panels etc. for the next issue of
CEHN should please contact the editor. Numbers are theconference organizers’ serial numbers; names are those ofpanel organizers unless otherwise indicated.
Friday April 12th, both morning sessions: 43 and 67,“Environmental Discourse in Asia: Appropriations andTransformations.” Peter Brosius, University of Georgia.
Friday April 12th, second morning session: 51, “ContrastingCosmologies: The Search for a Coherent World View?”
Gillian Simpson, SOAS, University of London.
Friday April 12th, second morning session: 61, “Poverty,
Gender and Environment: Empirical Assessments of
Economic Liberalization in India.” Ronald Herring,
Cornell University.
Friday April 12th, first afternoon session: 84,
Page 3

“Contemporary Tourist Destinations: Conflicting Imagery
of Spaces and Places in Asia and the Pacific.” Kathryn
Besio, University of Hawaii, Manoa.
Friday April 12th, second afternoon session: 113, “China’s
Changing Borders and Contested Frontiers.” Individual
paper session.
Saturday April 13th, morning session: 122, “The Three
Gorges Dam: Local and Global Perspectives.” Irene
Bloom, Barnard College/Columbia University.
Saturday April 13th, morning session: 124, “Tourist Guides
and Urban Identity in Modern China.” Susan Naquin,
Princeton University.
Saturday April 13th, first afternoon session: 146, “Manchu
Colonialism? Perspectives on Qing Policies in Mongolia,
Tibet, and Xinjiang.”
Nicola Di Cosmo, Harvard
University.
Saturday April 13th, both afternoon sessions: 161 and 182,
“Environmental Conflicts and the Negotiation of Identities
in South and Southeast Asia.” Arun Agrawal, University
of Florida, Gainesville, and Akhil Gupta, Stanford
University.
Sunday April 14th, second morning session: 215,
“Constructing Boundaries: The Historiography of Frontiersfrom Tang to Song.” Susan Whitfield, the British
Library.
East Asian Archaeology Network Conference, Honolulu,
April 9th-10th, 1996.
This conference will be held in conjunction with the annual
meeting of the Association for Asian Studies.
For
information and registration, contact:
Pak Yangjin
Dept. of Anthropology
Peabody Museum 57A
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138(Fax: 617-496-8041;
E-mail: ypak@husc8 harvard.edu)“Depicting and Describing Early China”: Workshop
Series, University of Chicago
For information on this new graduate research workshop,
please contact Magnus Fiskesjo. E-mail:fisk@midway.uchicago.edu; address as in directory ofsubscribers.

Publications
Article on Hangzhou Bay, c. 1000-1800. Mark Elvin and
Su Ninghu, “Man Against the Sea: Natural andAnthropogenic Factors in the Changing Morphology ofHarngzhou Bay, circa 1000–1800.” Environment andHistory 1 (1995): 3–54.
This study presents a preliminary reconstruction andanalysis of the dramatic changes in the morphology ofHangzhou Bay over eight centuries. It uses remote-sensing
Page 4

images in conjunction with the analysis of sequences of oldmaps, drawing on present-day hydrological science where
useful. The changes included two shifts in the mouth of
the Qiantang River, and complete “redrawing” of both thenorthern and the southern coastlines in the inner bay. The
article discusses the role of human activity in disrupting theprevious balance between the tidal deposition of sediments
originating further north, and their removal by river flow in
conjunction with ebb tides. It argues that this balance wasdisrupted by the building of sea walls; the diversion of rivers;
the storage of water in irrigation systems (which reduced
peak discharge of river water into Hangzhou Bay); andhydraulic engineering on the Yellow River during 1578–79(which increased the amount of fine-grain sediment beingtransported down the coast from the Yellow River’s mouth
after that river’s southward shift in 1194).
The article also addresses the problem of“technological lock-in”, arguing on one hand that theconstruction of complex hydraulic systems foreclosed
options on alternative future uses of resources, and on theother, that shifts in the pattern of sediment deposition anderosion could sometimes bring about release from “lock-in.”
It draws broader conclusions about the importance ofenvironmental history for the study of long-term economic
history, as well as outlining certain analytical problems for
future discussion.
Environment and History (ISSN 0967-3407) ispublished by The White Horse Press at 1 Strond, Isle ofHarris, Scotland PA83 3UD, UK (fax 44 859 520 204).
The subscription for individuals is $US 50.00 p.a.
Special Issue of Zhongguo shehui jingji shi yanjiu on theHighland and Lowland Economies of South-eastern
China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368–1911).
The 1995, no. 2 issue of Zhongguo shehui jingji shi yanjiu(published at Xiamen University and available throughZhongguo Guoji Tushu Maoyi Zong Gongsi) is devoted
entirely to the above topic. It contains eight articles, as
follows: a general introduction (Yang Guozhen); a
comparative study of economic development in the Huizhou
highlands and the Lake Tai lowlands (Li Changgong); ananalysis of the regional disparity between the economies of
the upstream and downstream areas of the Min valley,
Fujian (Chen Zhiping); a comparative study of the economic
structures of the highland and lowland sections of the
Qiantang river basin, Zhejiang (Guo Runtao); two papers
analyzing the economic characteristics of the mountainousand coastal sections of the Jin and Jiulong river basins,
Fujian (Lin Tingshui and Liu Yonghua respectively); a
study of economic development in the delta of the river Han,
Guangdong, and its tributary the Ting, Fujian (Liu
Zhenggang); and a quantitative comparative analysis of thehighland and lowland economies of Northern Taiwan (Zhou
Xianghe).

Case-study in Demographic History in China. Li
Zhongqing (James Lee) and Guo Songyi, eds., Qingdai
huangzu renkou xingwei he shehui huanjing [TheDemographic Behavior of the Qing Imperial Lineage and its
Social Environment]. Beijing: Peking University Press,
1994. ISBN: 7-301-02593-9. Price 29.00 yuan. In
Chinese, with English abstracts.
This volume presents thirteen papers by Chinese andAmerican scholars. The following summary focuses on
those papers most likely to be of interest to readers of
CEHN.
An introductory overview of recent research on the
traditional Chinese demographic system by James Lee
points out the distinctive features of the Chinese systemcompared with its Western European counterpart, andargues the importance of understanding the different
consequences of past demographic behaviour in China andEurope. James Lee and Wang Feng next present theiranalysis of fertility and birth spacing among 33,000 childrenof the Qing imperial lineage born in Beijing during
1700–1840. They find evidence of regular and deliberate
use of spacing by lineage couples in the late eighteenth
century. A corresponding study, by Lee, Wang, andCameron Campbell, of infant, child, and youth mortality
among the same children finds regular use of infanticide in
the late eighteenth century, combined with evidence ofconsiderable care to protect those children who were kept.
The two studies argue that their findings necessitate revisionof previous assumptions about, respectively, preventive andpositive checks on population growth in China.
Lai Huimin’s analysis of 2,000 male adoptions andover 100 petitions relating to adoption concludes that over 5
per cent of the imperial lineage’s sons were adopted, withthe proportion reaching 10 per cent in the periods
1790–1809 and 1880–89. Liu Sufen finds, on the basis ofa study of over 20,000 marriages, that over the period
1640–1880 average age at marriage rose (from late ‘teens tolate twenties), while there was a decline in the proportion of
lineage men marrying polygamously. Du Jiaji examines
the role of the introduction and promotion of improved
methods of preventing smallpox in reducing child mortality
and thus facilitating lineage expansion.
The other papers in the volume are a study of socialand economic stratification within the lineage (Guo Songyi);
a study of access to office and titles of nobility for lineage
members (Lai Huimin); four papers on the lineage’s
population records and the computer techniques used fordata coding and analysis; and a concluding “state of the
field” survey (Ding Yizhuang).
Resource on Contemporary Environmental Issues in
China. China Environment News, published by the United
Nations Environmental Programme and China’s National
Environmental Protection Agency, costs US$24.00 per year.
It is available from:
Circulation Dept.

15A Xiaoxinglongjie
Chongwen District
Beijing
China 100062
Other Items of Interest
Archaeology, Anthropology, History—South Asia Network
and Newsletter. A registration form for this newsletter isreproduced on p. 29 of EAANnouncements (the newsletter ofthe East Asian Archaeology Network).
The fullsubscription rate is Rs. 30.00 p.a. (and the student rate Rs.
17.00 p.a.) plus Rs. 10.00 for bank charges if payment ismade by cheque. Contact:
Nandini Rao
AH-SAN, c/o Dr. C. R. Reddy
1 D Cambrae East
Victoria CrescentCommander-in-Chief Road
Madras 600 105
India
R. H. Barnes, Andrew Gray, and Benedict Kingsbury, eds.,
Indigenous Peoples of Asia. Published by the Association
for Asian Studies (U.S.A.). US$40.00 or $22.50 (withdiscounts for AAS members).
Alfred W. Crosby, “The Past and Present of Environmental
History.” The American Historical Review 100, no. 4(1995): 1177–89.
Elizabeth Van Wie Davis, China and the Law of the Sea
Convention. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press,
1995. US$69.95.
East and Southeast Asian Anthropology, a new journal to be
published by the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at
Harvard University.
The editorial board consists ofHarvard graduate students in anthropology, and one of thejournal’s objectives is to promote the dissemination anddiscussion of graduate students’ research-in-progress.
Submissions are encouraged. For further information,
contact:
Erika Evasdottir
Dept. of Anthropology
Harvard University
11 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge MA 02138(Tel: 617-493-7100;
E-mail: evasdot1@husc7.harvard.edu)
Education About Asia, a new, twice-yearly journal publishedby the AAS. Potential contributors should contact:
Lucien Ellington, Editor
Education About Asia
Page 5

314A Hunter Hall
615 McCallie Avenue
University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Chattanooga TN 37403
U.S.A.
(E-mail: lellingt@NETFRAME.utc.edu)
John Farrington and David J. Lewis, eds.,
Non-Governmental Organizations and the State in Asia:
Rethinking Roles in Sustainable Agricultural Development.
London: Routledge, 1994. US$74.50 or $25.00.
Madhav Guha Gadgil, Ecology and Equity: The Use andAbuse of Nature in Contemporary India.
London:Routledge, 1995.
J. B. Harley and David Woodward, eds., The History of
Cartography, Vol. 2, Book 2: Cartography in the
Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies. Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press, 1994. US$195.00.
Richard E. Strassberg, trans., Inscribed Landscapes: Travel
Writing from Imperial China. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1994. US$20.00 paper.
Wall and Market: Chinese Urban History News, a new,twice-yearly newsletter, edited by Kristin Stapleton, Shi
Mingzheng, and Lee McIsaac. This newsletter will be
published in both English and Chinese, and will be available
both by e-mail and in hard copy. For subscription andsubmission information, contact:
Kristin Stapleton
Department of History
University of Kentucky
Lexington KY 40506-0027(E-mail: kestap01@ukcc.uky.edu)

Jobs and Fellowships
Position in Environmental History at Yale. Yale has
advertized a four-year renewable appointment inenvironmental history at assistant professor level (equivalent
to lectureship in the British system), combined withdirectorship of undergraduate studies in the interdisciplinary
Environmental Studies Program. Apply by 1st December
to Prof. Robin Winks, Dept. of History, Yale University,
P.O. Box 208324, New Haven CT 06520-8324, U.S.A.
Three testimonials required.
Position in Environmental Studies at Gettysburg College,
Pennsylvania.
Gettysburg College has advertized atenurable assistant professorship in environmental studies.
Qualifications include a Ph.D. in environmental studies or a
related field, with a focus on resource management andenvironmental policy. Apply by 8th December or as soon
as possible thereafter to Dr. John Commito, Environmental
Page 6

Studies Program, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg PA 17325,
U.S.A. Include C.V., statement on teaching and researchgoals, and names and addresses of three referees (at least
one of whom can testify to teaching effectiveness).
Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and Society.
This “multi-disciplinary research centre” has advertized aone-year Sun Life Visiting Research Fellowship for 1996-97.
The position is essentially non-stipendiary, although theadvertizement mentions limited housing and researchexpense allowances plus dining rights at Mansfield College.
For further information and application form, contact The
Project Administrator, OCEES, Mansfield College, Oxford
0X1 3TF, England (e-mail ocees@mansfield.oxford.ac.uk)
by December 15th.

Internet (WWW) Addresses(Note. Final full stops are not part of the addresses.)
Australian Centre of the Asian Spatial Information andAnalysis Network: http://www.asian.gu.edu.au.
International Institutehttp://iias.leidenuniv nl.

for

Asian

Studies(IIAS):The
Association
for
Asian
Studies(U.S.A.):
http://www.easc.indiana.edu/~AAS. This will soon havejob listings as well as other useful material.
Documentary Educational Resources (a “distributor of
educational visual materials”): http://der.org/docued.

How Exhausted an Earth? Some
Thoughts on Qing (1644–1911)
Environmental History
Kenneth Pomeranz
University of California at Irvine
One of the central stories of Ming-Qing history is population
growth; and population growth goes hand in hand withenvironmental degradation.
If population growth isaccompanied by at least some improvement in standard ofliving, the environmental impact is likely to be still worse.
After all, what “development” means, in some sense, is thatthe ratio of capital to land grows even faster than that oflabor to land; but before the major land-saving innovationsof the industrial revolution (e.g. the use of coal rather thantimber for the bulk of people’s energy needs, and thecreation of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that greatly
raised per-acre crop yields), the capacity of labor and capitalto substitute for scarce land was quite limited. Land (incombination with water and sunshine) was essential for the
production of all four of Malthus’s “necessities of life”: food,fiber (for clothing), fuel, and building materials. To someextent, combinations of labor and capital could make thesame piece of land go further as a source of food and fiber
through land reclamation, irrigation projects, etc. But eventhese kinds of land-improving projects had limited
possibilities compared to what would be possible after thedevelopment of a chemical industry, and there was very little
that could be done to increase the yield of fuel or building
materials from a given amount of land.
Thus, environmental problems follow from either an
Elvin/Huang picture of extensive growth with stagnant
living standards or a more cheerful story, and there clearly
were such strains as China reached new levels of population
density in the eighteenth century.1 It then seems logical totake some further steps. One is to suppose that the massive(and often sudden) ecological catastrophes of the
mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries were naturalconsequences of the smaller, but mounting ecologicalproblems of the late eighteenth century. A second is to link
this ecological story firmly to the massive rebellions of thenineteenth century.
A third is to assume that theeighteenth-century ecological problems, like the later
ecological disasters, were unusually severe by global
standards, and then to search for reasons why “China”(treated as a single society and culture) would have hadparticularly severe problems. Attempts to address this last
question have looked both at cultural attitudes (such as anunder-valuation of “wild lands”), and at imperfections inproperty rights régimes which made it too cheap to encroachon public resources.2 While both these approaches havemuch to offer, it may help if we first clarify what
phenomena they are supposed to explain. Were China’slate eighteenth-century ecological problems really unusual incomparative perspective? Did they constitute a crisis
severe enough that we should draw a straight line linking itwith later disasters, which really were unusual in scale?
As a first step, the problem needs to be broken down
geographically, at least as far as the macroregional level.3
Commercially Advanced Macroregions
Clearly the Lower Yangzi, China’s most advanced
macroregion, required by the eighteenth century far more of
all four necessities than its own internal periphery could
provide. (In that sense, it had stopped functioning as aclassic macroregion, which should be more or less autarkic.)
The solution, of course, was imports from various othermacroregions (plus Manchuria) of grain, raw cotton, timber,and soybean cake, financed largely by exports ofmanufactured goods (chiefly textiles).4 This was the one
way that labor and capital could, in effect, substitute forscarce land. And Lingnan, the macroregion with its urban
hub at Canton, was following the Lower Yangzi’s lead,
although its grain and timber deficits were not yet as large.

While these processes could not go on forever, it is notclear in exactly what sense these most advanced regions
faced a “crisis” at the end of the eighteenth century. Li
Bozhong’s important work on timber supply, for instance,
makes a compelling case that wood shortages probably
hindered further industrial growth, both because fuel became
expensive, and because the kind of construction that would
have been necessary for a shift to factory production became
But while clearly important, suchvery expensive.5
bottlenecks standing in the way of a process that nobody wascounting on to happen (and which might well not haveoccurred in any case) are very different from a crisis, inwhich people can no longer find affordable supplies of thefood or fuel that they do count on. And as long as traders
serving the Lower Yangzi and Lingnan were still finding
new places where they could exchange cloth for timber orgrain, such crises need not have happened. True, the mostdeveloped macroregions would eventually have run out ofpartners for this sort of trade, but that appears not to havebeen happening yet, even in the early nineteenth century.
Areas like the Middle Yangzi were growing in population,
generating smaller surpluses of food and timber, andproducing more of their own cloth locally, but Manchuria
and parts of Southeast Asia, for instance, were increasing
their involvement in this trade. And since population
growth in at least the core of the Lower Yangzi region
appears to have levelled off by the late eighteenth century, it
is not clear that the most advanced areas faced a real
ecological crisis anytime soon.6
Less Developed Macroregions—and One Method of
Estimating the Depth of their Problems
But what about areas that were not the Lower Yangzi
or Lingnan, and could not pay for ecologically important
imports by exporting manufactures? Conceivably suchareas might have suffered more than areas that did have thissort of trade, even if they had lower population densities.
Here we have at least two kinds of areas to think about:frontier regions, where large amounts of land were being
converted from other uses to Han-style agriculture, andmacroregions that had long been farmed, but were not as
heavily populated or prosperous as the Lower Yangzi or
Lingnan. For frontier regions, environmental degradation
may well have begun with the eighteenth-century expansionof Han settlement, but we would not expect to see the full
impact until much later. I therefore focus these remarks on
macroregions where Chinese-style farming was centuries
old.
It may be more feasible than we think to measure theenvironmental problems of such areas. Others are far
better qualified than I to discuss possible uses of climaticdata, and have done so in previous issues of this newsletter.
I would, however, like to call attention to another possibility:
reconstructing fuel and manure supply for various regions ofChina. The reader should bear in mind that crop residues
formed an important part of rural Chinese fuel supplies.
Page 7

Some Westerners have taken this in itself to be a sign ofenvironmental degradation and/or lowered living standards,
but this need not be true, as we shall see shortly.
Estimates of manuring levels for the 1930s areavailable in various South Manchurian Railway Company(Mantetsu) surveys of North China, John Lossing Buck’s
surveys, and other sources from the 1920s and 1930s. At
least for the area I have studied (in Western Shandong,
Eastern Henan, and Southern Hebei provinces) these seem
roughly consistent with figures available elsewhere on
number of people, farm animals, and cultivated acreage.
Moreover, most of the data needed for fuel supply estimates
are also available for the 1930s. The massive shiye zhi(industrial gazetteers) generated in the 1930s givecounty-level data on area under different crops, amount offorest land, population, and number of farm animals.7
These data appear to be fairly reliable, at least for theprovinces I have examined.
A number of othersources—crop output data for 1929-37 in the Republican
Period Archives (Nanjing), Mantetsu surveys, and somepost-revolutionary surveys—exist with which to cross-checkthese figures. Most of the other data needed (e.g. amountthat pigs ate, amount of combustible residue per acreproduced by different crops) are available in surveys, or canbe inferred within a reasonable range; and the calculations
required to convert these numbers into estimates of available
biomass energy are straightforward (see note 9 below).
To move from a 1930s estimate to one for the early or
mid-Qing involves a) getting approximate figures forcropped acreage and population at the desired date, and b)
relying on several assumptions first laid out by Dwight
Perkins twenty-five years ago, which seem to have held up
pretty well.8 Perkins argued that the number of pigs hadchanged at roughly the same rate as China’s humanpopulation between 1368 and the 1950s, and that the
number of plow animals per acre of cultivated land had also
remained roughly constant. He also made a strong casethat grain supply per capita did not change much over thislong period, which allows us to derive per acre yields inyear Y by taking those from the 1930s and multiplying themby (Year Y population ÷ 1930s population) times (Year Y
cropped acreage ÷ 1930s cropped acreage). Once we haveestimated per acre yields in year Y, it seems reasonable toassume that the same trends affected per acre output of crop
residues. Other quantities that need to be projectedbackwards—such as amount of land under buildings androads—can also be guessed using population, and adjustingso as to bias the results against one’s hypothesis (see note 10
below). The results are hardly perfect, but they provide anice supplement to, and check on, the remarks of literati andofficials on which we often have to rely.
A Case Study
To test the hypothesis of a North China ecologicalcrisis circa 1800, I settled on one relatively small portion of
the macroregion: Southwest Shandong, an area ofPage 8twenty-seven xian (counties) with a 1930s population ofroughly 8,100,000 and a probable 1800 population of about
4,900,000. Admittedly, the major reason for choosing thisarea was that I already had data in an easily usable form, but
it also possesses certain advantages as a test case. As oneof the most densely populated and least forested areas of themacroregion, it should have had some of the most severe
ecological problems; and (like the Huaibei region it
bordered) it certainly had a reputation that linked scarcity
with endemic banditry and social unrest. In another study,
I estimated the area’s fuel supply in the 1930s at 0.09 tons ofcoal equivalent (t.c.e.) per person per year. This is a mere
27 per cent of the 0.33 t.c.e. per person that the AsianDevelopment Bank considers a bare minimum for survival,
and is roughly comparable to the fuel supply in the poorer
parts of Bangladesh and parts of Sahelian Africa in the
1980s.9 While the area did receive some imports of woodfrom other places during the nineteenth century, these seemto have been on a very modest scale, and the area did notimport either food or fiber. Thus, if any portion of theNorth China plain was in serious ecological distress in 1800,
it should have been Southwest Shandong.
It is thus interesting that, even if one makes every
possible effort to generate a worst case scenario, the region
does not seem to have been so badly off ecologically circa
1800. A very conservative estimate of fuel supply works
out to 0.62 t.c.e. per capita—almost double the AsianDevelopment Bank’s minimum, and almost 20 per centabove Braudel’s estimate of French fuel consumption on theeve of the 1789 Revolution.10 My extremely conservative
estimate of the share of this region’s land that was still
forested in 1800 (13.2 per cent) is just a bit below estimatesfor France in 1789, which average at about one-sixth of thenation’s territory.11 Meanwhile, my estimate of available
manure comes to anywhere from 5,600 to 8,900 kg. per
cropped acre: about 18 per cent below the levels found in
Mantetsu surveys, but 40 to 60 per cent above estimates ofthe fertilizer applied in some of the most agriculturally
advanced regions of late eighteenth-century Europe.12
Possible Implications
The exercise above does not change the fact that earlynineteenth-century China had various ecological nightmares
brewing. Erosion in some highland areas—especiallythose that were rapidly deforested to plant New World foodcrops in the eighteenth century—was extremely serious.
And at least two kinds of flood problem were becoming
worse. Where too many small-scale local water control
facilities had been built, usually by private parties
undertaking reclamation (as in parts of Hunan andGuangdong), slowed-down rivers were rising ominously.
And the largest state-run water control efforts—along theGrand Canal and Yellow River—were becoming
bureaucratically and politically unsustainable, in part
because Yangzi Valley tax-payers were increasingly
resistant to paying for them (and later because of foreignpressures as well).13 At least one macroregion—the
Northwest—was probably much worse off than North
China.
Consequently, it would be foolish to remove ecologicalcrisis from our picture of nineteenth-century China.
However, we should keep a few possibilities in mind. First,
the link between population-driven ecological stress in theeighteenth century and full-blown ecological crises later on
may not be as direct as we think. Certainly politics andchanging ideas about the role of the state were importantintervening variables between population per se and the
problems raised in the last paragraph: there were, forinstance, political reasons why the Qing drastically reduced
their efforts in Yellow River control after 1890, so that thetwentieth century flooding in North China was often as
much the result of politics as of ecology.14 And the link tosocial unrest may be still more indirect: it is not yet clear
how the geography of nineteenth-century rebellion maps
against the geography of ecological crisis.15
Second, we should probably avoid thinking of China
as a whole as having had an ecological crisis, or at least
reserve judgment on whether it had a particularly bad one.
It may be useful here to make a brief comparison with
Western Europe, which, like China (and Japan, but not therest of the world), reached unprecedented levels of
population in the eighteenth century. A few areas of each(the Lower Yangzi and Lingnan in China; England, theNetherlands, and perhaps Northern Italy in Western Europe)
were commercially very advanced, were desperately short offuel, and needed trade to survive; but as long as they could
sustain such a trade, they had the highest standards of livingin their respective parts of Eurasia. (Actually, living
standards in the most commercialized and urbanized parts ofJapan may have been even higher than those in the Lower
Yangzi and Lingnan, but these areas appear to have beenencountering similar problems in “reproducing theirecological base.”16) Each had a few sparsely populated“peripheral” regions (Southwest China, the Baltic) that
could still export large amounts of ecologically sensitive
goods, such as grain, wood, and livestock. And each hadsome large areas (North China, much of France andGermany) which would have had trouble sustaining newenergy-intensive industries,17 and within which some
sub-regions could not even provide enough fuel for ruralfamilies to have fires, but which were not generally
desperate or dependent on imports. Finally, each had a few
areas (Northwest China, much of Spain) which had been
seriously over-grazed or otherwise abused, and now faced
genuine crisis.
If we provisionally accept this comparison, what thenbecomes odd is the ability of Europe’s rich but ecologicallyvulnerable areas to move to a whole new level of energy use(and consumption generally) in the nineteenth century: they
could do so thanks to coal and overseas empire, both ofwhich the Lower Yangzi and Lingnan lacked. The
resulting plenty in Europe made China look ecologicallyexhausted by comparison — and accelerated
twentieth-century population growth has greatly worsened
the picture. But before we read either nineteenth or
twentieth century ecological crises back too far, or makethem too empire-wide—and begin searching for Chinesecharacteristics to explain them—we should reconsider the
possibility that the early nineteenth-century Chinese earth
had a more “normal” range of ecological problems than abroad retrospective verdict of “exhaustion” might suggest.

NOTES
1. See Mark Elvin, The Pattern of the Chinese Past
(London: Eyre Methuen, 1973) and Philip C. C. Huang, The
Peasant Family and Rural Development in the Yangzi Delta,
1350–1988 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990).
While the arguments of Huang and Elvin are not identical,
they do converge on the point that China’s growth in output
after 1400 or so may have kept up with population growth,
but did not substantially exceed it.
2. For a summary of the two approaches, with an emphasis
on property rights, see Peter C. Perdue, “Thoughts on
Chinese Property Rights in Land and Global Environmental
Change,” Chinese Environmental History Newsletter 1, no.
1 (April 1994): 6–8. For an interesting example of acultural approach, see Nicholas Menzies, “Strategic Space:
Exclusion and Inclusion in Wildland Policies in Late
Imperial China,” Modern Asian Studies 26, no. 4 (1992):
719–33.
3. Macroregions are large physiographic regions, notnecessarily corresponding to political units, which, in the era
before cheap land transport, were more or less economically
self-sufficient, and were organized through a nested
hierarchy of marketing centers; each had its own internalcore in which wealth, population and high value-added
activities were concentrated, and its own periphery, which
had fewer people per square mile and supplied goods suchas timber, stone, and/or wool to the core. China Proper
was composed of eight such macroregions. For the best
explication of this concept, including maps, see the essays
by its creator, G. William Skinner, in G. W. Skinner, ed.,The City in Late Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1977).
4. The coastal part of Jiangbei (the northernmost part of
the Lower Yangzi, and one of its poorest sub-regions) did
provide very large quantities of another export, salt. Thiswas sent outside the Lower Yangzi through a heavily taxed
trade organized as a government monopoly. Some of theincome from those sales did return to the Lower Yangzi,
creating an enormous concentration of wealth in Yangzhou,
Jiangbei’s major city. There are, however, reasons to
doubt that this wealth circulated more broadly through thePage 9macroregion, and Jiangbei remained a periphery, which, as
Skinner would predict, does not seem to have imported large
amounts of food, fuel, or fiber. On Yangzhou, Jiangbei,
and the salt trade, see Antonia Finnane, “Yangzhou: A
Central Place in the Qing Empire,” in Linda Cooke Johnson,ed., Cities of Jiangnan in Late Imperial China (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1993): 117–149.
5. Li Bozhong, “Ming-Qing shiqi Jiangnan diqu de mucai
wenti,” Zhongguo shehui jingji shi yanjiu 1986, no. 1:
86–96; translated and abridged in Chinese Environmental
History Newsletter 1, no. 2 (November 1994): 17–21.
6. Li Bozhong, “Kongzhi zengzhang yi bao fuyu: Qingdai
qian zhong Jiangnan de renkou xingwei” [Preserving
Prosperity by Controlling Population Growth: Demographic
Behavior in Jiangnan during the Early and Mid-Qing], Xin
shixue 5, no. 3 (1994): 33–36.

365–67.
11. See, for instance, the summary by J. P. Cooper, “In
Search of Agrarian Capitalism,” in T. H. Aston and C. H. E.
Philpin, eds., The Brenner Debate (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1985), p. 139, n. 2.
12. The Mantetsu figures are discussed in Philip C. C.
Huang, The Peasant Economy and Social Change in North
China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), pp.
147–48; the European data are summarized in B. H. Slicher
van Bath, “Agriculture in the Vital Revolution,” in E. E.
Rich and C. H. Wilson, eds., The Cambridge Economic
History of Europe, Vol. V (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1977), p. 94.
13. See Pomeranz, Making of a Hinterland, pp. 153–211.
14. Ibid., pp. 182–265.

7. The shiye zhi can be found under Zhongguo Shiyebu,
Guoji Maoyi Ju (compiler), with the title Zhongguo shiye zhi,
[Province name] sheng.
8. Dwight H. Perkins, Agricultural Development in China(Chicago: Aldine Press, 1969), pp. 31, 71–2, and 297–307.
9. The results of the calculation are discussed in Kenneth
Pomeranz, The Making of a Hinterland: State, Society, andEconomy in Inland North China, 1853–1937 (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1993), ch. 3. The sources
and methods behind this calculation are spelled out in muchfuller detail in Pomeranz, “the Making of a Hinterland,”Yale University Ph.D. dissertation, 1988, Appendix F.
10. To depress fuel supply estimates, I calculated theamount of land under buildings and roads (and thus
generating no usable biomass) in 1800 on the basis of amere 20 per cent reduction from what was already probably
an overestimate for c. 1930. Since the amount of land used
this way should change at a rate which reflects the growth of
population and trade, I would have been justified in cutting
the 1930 figure by 40 per cent. In order to reduce theamount of forest land further (that is, after subtracting waste
land, land under roads and buildings, and cropped land), I
assigned 27 per cent of the region’s land to pasture—enoughto provide 50 per cent of the feed for the area’s farm animals,
and far higher than any available anecdotal evidence would
suggest. (In the 1930s, grass land provided 7.5 per cent of
the feed for the area’s farm animals.) And I assumed that
two-thirds of the forest was second-growth forest that was
not yet mature, and thus would have a sustainable yield only
half as great as a comparable area of mature forest. On
French fuel consumption in the eighteenth century, see
Fernand Braudel, The Structures of Everyday Life, vol. 1 ofCivilization and Capitalism, 15th to 18th Centuries, trans.
Sian Reynolds (New York: Harper and Row, 1979), pp.
Page 10

15. Elizabeth J. Perry’s Rebels and Revolutionaries inNorth China, 1845–1945 (Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1980) is an excellent but all-too-rare example of awork that examines these relationships carefully, and roots
them in a regional, rather than national, ecological crisis.
16. Conrad Totman, The Lumber Industry in Early
Modern Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
1995), p. 102.
17. Indeed, in the eighteenth century, even existing Frenchironworks could often run for only a few weeks a year.
Braudel, The Structures of Everyday Life, p. 367.

Environmental Degradation, Forest
Protection and Ethno-History in
Yunnan(III) Nature Reserves and Non-Han
Swidden Cultivators
Christian Daniels
Institute for the Study of the Languages andCultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo Universityof Foreign Studies
Many non-Han swidden cultivators in Yunnan display
apathy towards nature reserves, and still persist in hunting
animals and felling trees within their precincts.
Inanalyzing the reasons for their behaviour, Yin Shaoting has
drawn attention to the following three factors.
First, after 1949 the Chinese government establishedmany nature reserves on land that originally belonged tohill-dwelling peoples.
Since nationalization, thehill-dwellers’ access to land has fallen far below past levels,and this has resulted in some villages being left without
sufficient land to cultivate. Second, hill peoples have notbenefitted in any tangible way from the prohibitions on
felling trees, hunting and gathering in nature reserves.
Third, nature reserves and prohibitions against shooting
protected animals have actually created incessant trouble forthem. Many now suffer severe losses in income fromdamage to agricultural crops by protected animals. To
provide two examples from the data Yin collected in Jinuo
Shan, Xishuang Banna, in 1982 elephants and other wild
animals destroyed the whole crop—an estimated thirty
tonnes—of the cash-earning plant Amomum villosum Lour.
(sharen), the seeds or fruits of which are prized in medicine
for their aromatic, tonic and stomachic properties, in thevillage of Baya Zhongzhai. In 1986, the loss of grain crops
due to damage by wild animals in a mere seven or sovillages in the county came to twenty-six tonnes. Although
the regulations stipulate that peasants should becompensated for such losses, forestry officials seldom havesufficient funds at their disposal to do so.1
Data collected and observations made on my trips to
Yunnan confirm the accuracy of Yin’s analysis. As an
example, let me cite the case of a Lahu village, Anma
Laozhai (thirty-six households, population 180 individuals),
which is located about 40 kilometres from Jinghong, on thefringe of the Naban Nature Reserve in Xishuang Banna. I
visited this village together with four Japanese folklorists
and historians on December 8th and 9th, 1992. Although
our purpose was not to investigate the effect of nature
reserves on the villagers, we saw at first hand the severepractical difficulties that beset swidden cultivators relocatedwithout adequate compensation.2
Anma Laozhai has experienced two types of relocation
during the past twenty-three years. The first occurred in1972 when the villagers settled permanently at the present
site (elevation: about 860 metres) under strong
governmental supervision. Prior to this, the villagers hadpractised migratory swidden agriculture deeper in themountains at higher elevations. A seventy-eight year old
man recalled that he had shifted seven times before coming
here. The Lahu are a Sino-Tibetan language speaking
people who inhabit the mountainous areas of the Simao andLincang districts in the sub-tropical zone of southern
Yunnan; their population in this province amounted to304,174 as of 1982. Renowned as tiger-hunters, the Lahu
combined hunting and gathering with migratory swidden(“slash-and-burn”) agriculture in the past. The ancestors ofAnma Laozhai migrated from Lancang county in the Simao
district to Menghai county in Xishuang Banna during the
1930s, and cultivated opium there until the late 1950s.3
Since the 1950s, the government has encouraged hill
peoples to move down to lower elevations and settle
permanently near roads in order to facilitate administrationand the provision of services such as electricity, health careand schooling. After settlement, these Lahu newcomers
immediately found problems with access to land. The landthat they began to cultivate had historically belonged to the
nearby Dai village, and this triggered off a demarcation
dispute which did not end until 1983, when the government
implemented new regulations which defined the boundaries
of state forests and nature reserves, and allocated land forswidden agriculture to the hill peoples. The second“relocation” came in 1991, when the government declared
the forests beside the village a nature reserve, and thereforeout of bounds for hunting and gathering.
Both“relocations” brought hardship and caused great changes tothe villagers’ way of life.
Each “relocation” has ended in reduced access to land
for the villagers. Under the new regulations for the
distribution of hill land, in 1983 each person (adults andchildren alike) was entitled to receive twenty-one mu of landfor swidden cultivation. This figure was based on thepremise that for subsistence one person needed to cultivate
three mu per year; three mu would be cropped for three
years with a fallow period of seven years, which would
allow for rejuvenation. But it was not always possible togrant each person twenty-one mu, as the actual amount ofland available for distribution varied according to local
conditions. The policy of first designating woodlands forstate forests and nature reserves drastically diminished theamount of land available for allocation to the hill peoples insome places.4 In the lucky areas which had a surplus of hill
land, such as Jinuo Shan, apportionments per person
generally exceeded twenty-one mu, but in Anma Laozhai, asevere shortage of hill land dictated that each of the 150
residents (population as of 1983) received only six mu.
Compensation through an increase in paddy land proved
impossible due to the dispute with the Dai cultivators
mentioned above. As a result, the Anma Laozhai villagers
received only 0.8 mu of paddy land per person. In addition,
since 1991 the villagers have lost their hunting andgathering grounds, and are afraid to burn off vegetation forfear of the fire spreading to the nature reserve. Now thatthey are sandwiched between a nature reserve above, and a
Dai village in the valley below, there is little hope for
improvement in their situation.
By no stretch of the imagination could this village be
described as well off. The economic condition of the Lahu
family we surveyed attests to this. The combined annual
income of the household of Li Wangxing (age twenty-seven)
who lives with his wife Zha Xiaoer (age twenty-eight) andtwo children, amounted to roughly 900 yuan. The 1990
average per capita income of Xishuang Banna was 1,176
yuan per year, so there can be no doubt that this figure is
exceptionally low even by local standards, not to mention
the national norm. Because his wife has come fromanother Lahu village about five kilometres away, she has noland in Anma Laozhai, so the family must live off Li’s
holding of one mu of paddy land, and eight mu of dry land.
Page 11

Li’s children were both born after 1983 and therefore
received no land. Although the family’s share is slightly
larger than the average apportionment per person, this does
not detract from the fact that the allotment for a single
person (Li) has to be utilized to support four people. In
addition, the family owned six pigs, forty fowls, and twowater buffaloes. On the dry land, Li and his wife each year
crop three mu with maize, and have planted the other five
mu with rubber, citrus, and tea trees. The rubber trees
cannot be tapped for another five years, so there is noprospect of immediate income from them. The one mu of
paddy does not provide enough rice to feed the family, so Li
sells his non-glutinous maize to the state in order to buy riceand other articles, and retains the glutinous maize for thefamily’s own consumption.
The establishment of the local nature reserve clearly
has not benefitted the Anma Laozhai villagers in any way.
It has forced them to abandon hunting and gathering
practices which were once essential to their lifestyle.
Although most households still possess muskets, thevillagers with whom I spoke said that they no longer used
them; the heavy fines for poaching make it simply not
worthwhile. Also, the demarcation of the nature reserve
has enforced permanent cropping and stationary housing on
the villagers, thereby making it impossible for them to adopt
their traditional strategy for solving problems of reduced
living standards due to resource depletion, namely thesimple act of migrating, or moving away from the source ofhardship. The failure to distribute adequate land resources
to compensate for losses experienced by the villagers has
exacerbated marginalization. Younger villagers in Anma
Laozhai are rapidly losing the past habits and values of theirancestors, but lack the means with which to adjust
satisfactorily to mainstream Chinese society. Conditions
such as these must inevitably affect the attitudes of local
people to nature reserves. We cannot expect villagers
whose lives have been disrupted in such ways to welcome
conservation with open arms.
Some authors, such as Edmonds, have portrayed thistype of situation as a conflict between preservation andutilization-exploitation, and have suggested that the solution
lies in guaranteeing nature reserves an adequate budget withwhich to relocate affected people and arrange for their
Edmonds’s comments appear in his
employment.5
excellent, comprehensive book-length survey of China’s
environmental degradation and protection policies, which
examines most of the past and current literature on thesubject for the entire country. He is certainly right insuggesting that it is only when nature reserves have ample
funds at their disposal that the problems can be remedied tothe satisfaction of the people relocated and theconservationists alike. In addition, I should like to stressthe need for sensitivity about relocation, and the necessity
for productive programmes for dealing with the problems it
generates. The case of Anma Laozhai indicates that thecreation of nature reserves has definitely disadvantaged
Page 12some ethnic groups.
Is there no chance of co-operation from relocatedpeople? Yin Shaoting thinks that there is. He argues thatthe hill peoples, given their long tradition of forest
protection, will come to understand the need forconservation if nature reserves can help them solve theireconomic problems. His suggestions include the trainingof some hill people as nature reserve staff; allowing villagers
to gather mushrooms from nature reserve forests, and plant
Amomum villosum on the wetlands located on the fringes of
the reserves; and permitting them to protect their crops by
firing blank shots around harvest time to ward off wild
animals. Once again, Yin emphasizes that it is only after
hill peoples gain something from nature reserves that they
will take an interest in protecting the flora and fauna in thesesanctuaries, and it is for this reason that he advises relaxing
some of the regulations.6
Here Yin touches on the crux of the problem, for any
long-lasting solution must take account of the historicalbackground. Areas designated as nature reserves at present
were never a terra nullius, or “no one’s land.” In the past,hill-dwelling peoples used them for hunting and gathering aswell as swidden cultivation, and practised measures toprevent resource depletion. As we saw in the first
installment, swidden cultivators in Yunnan have been
continually forced to “relocate” themselves due to landalienation and Han-induced environmental destruction since
the eighteenth century, if not earlier. To them, carving
nature reserves out of their traditional lands is nothing but achanged form of land alienation, despite all of the professed
good intentions for the protection of species. Viewed fromthis standpoint, what comes to the fore is not so much a
conflict between preservation and utilization-exploitation,but one between the preservation of nature and thepreservation of a human culture. Everybody talks ofenvironmental degradation and the extinction of species, but
few mention the degradation in life styles among hill
peoples that accompanies the foundation of nature reserves.
Surely it is critically important that the administration ofreserves be based on a recognition both of the unique
heritage and cultural traditions of hill peoples, and of thechanges wrought on them by shifts in government policy inthe past.
I am not for one minute suggesting a return totraditional migratory swidden cultivation practices. Withlargely increased populations and an already degradedenvironment, such ideas cannot be entertained. What I am
trying to show is that nature conservation in Yunnan has
been, and is still being, achieved at the expense of the hill
peoples, and what I am suggesting is that standards ofconservation may have to be sacrificed in some cases torender just compensation. In short, ideas of a strict“off-limits”, no-access policy must be discarded. Although
tourist-orientated nature reserves have been rightly criticizedfor destruction of resources,7 this does not constitute a
reason for denying displaced hill peoples special status withregard to conservation. They should be permitted limitedaccess to resources in nature reserves, for they too have aright to a decent livelihood. With proper administrationand control, a balance could be reached between
conservation and the interests of hill peoples.
At present, the government lacks the means tocompensate hill people for crop damage by protectedanimals, not to speak of solving the severe relocation
problems. Meanwhile, the hill peoples are left out on alimb. Their conditions could be greatly alleviated, and apositive interest in conservation fostered, by allowing themto utilize certain resources in the reserves, along the lines
proposed by Yin.
NOTES
1. Yin Shaoting, Yige chongman zhengyi de wenhua
shengtai tixi: Yunnan daogeng huozhong yanjiu [A Highly
Controversial Culturo-Ecological System: Slash-and-Burn
Cultivation in Yunnan] (Kunming: Yunnan Renminchubanshe, 1991), p. 185.
2. For published accounts of conditions in Anma Laozhai,
see the following reports in Christian Daniels and Watabe
Takeshi, Unnan no seikatsu to gijutsu [Life and Technology
in Yunnan] (Tokyo: Keiyūsha, 1994): Tamura Zenjirō,“Xishuang Banna shōsū minzoku no sonsai wo aruku”[Visits to Minority People Villages in Xishuang Banna], pp.
27–32; Watabe Takeshi, “Unnan chihō dentō seisan kōgusaihō shuki” [Notes on Investigating Traditional Production
Tools in Yunnan Province], pp. 79–86; and the basic data
given in the day-to-day record of the survey on pp. 449–50.
3. For opium growing, see Tamura, op. cit., p. 29.
4. For an account of distribution of land to hill peoples, seecomments by Yin Shaoting at the Symposium on Swidden
Agriculture among the Minority Peoples of Xishuang Banna,transcribed in Daniels and Watabe, op. cit., esp. pp. 417–19.
5.
Richard L. Edmonds, Patterns of China’s Lost
Harmony: A Survey of the Country’s Environmental
Degradation and Protection (London: Routledge, 1994), p.
210.
6. Yin, op. cit., pp. 185–87.
7. Edmonds, op. cit., p. 210 provides concrete examples
from nature reserves all over China of the serious damage
caused by tourism and maladministration.

How the Chinese Discovered the Ice:
China’s First Expedition to
Antarctica, 1984–85
Philippe Forêt
University of Texas
On 1 November 1995, Reuter reported from Beijingthat China would send fifteen Young Pioneers to the Great
Wall Antarctic Station for a seven to ten day research
project. Teenagers from mainland China, Hong Kong,
Taiwan and Macau would be welcome to apply. Several
Chinese enterprises would give US$480,000 to finance theprogram, which Young Pioneers officials presented as thefirst of its kind in the world. Since the precise object of theresearch project has not been disclosed, we may assume thatthe purpose of the Pioneers’ expedition may not be related topure science.
This piece of news is a reminder of the strong link thathas existed between environmental sciences, the Chinesestate and national propaganda. China’s first expedition to
Antarctica, during the 1984–85 austral summer, wasendorsed by the Party Central Committee, the State Council
and Deng Xiaoping himself. Mr. Deng offered the
expedition members an inscription on a plaque, which read:“Toward peaceful utilization of Antarctica by humanity.”
The diplomatic result of the building of the Great Wall
Station (Changcheng zhan) on King George Island in
January 1985 was China’s promotion to the rank ofconsulting member of the Antarctic Treaty Organization.
The People’s Republic of China has been a non-claimantconsultative nation with voting rights since the same year.
A Chinese delegation was present during the discussions
that led to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the
Antarctic Treaty (1991), although China’s position on theTreaty’s five specific annexes is unclear.
The size of the staffs of the two Chinese researchstations, the Great Wall and Sun Yat-sen (Zhongshan)
Stations, and the nature of their scientific activities aroundthe year are not well documented, as the Chinese National
Committee for Antarctic Research (CHINARE) seems tohave published only a few data reports since its
establishment in 1981. Ten years ago, on 14 February
1985, the First Chinese Expedition to Antarctica opened theGreat Wall Station, which had been built within six weeksof the selection of the site. The research station is locatedon the southwestern coast of King George island and close
to Nelson island, not far from a Chilean and a Russianstation. For the first hoisting of the five-star red flag in
Antarctica, Guo Kun, the expedition leader, chose a hilly
place with two lagoons, which are described as forming anoasis (lüzhou). Along the coast, the rich biota must haveprovided convenient research topics.
In spite of its rigorous isolation, Antarctica has become
Page 13affected by the tensions between science, state and territorythat have shaped environmental geography elsewhere.
Competition for the settling of the strategically located King
George island and Wrangel peninsula has become moreacute as the number of countries that open scientific bases
increases every summer. The justification for the buildingof these stations lies in the expressed needs of theenvironmental scientists who have investigated Antarctica’s
mainland, atmosphere and water. The rationales forinternational research in, for instance, palaeoclimatology orionosphere chemistry, have illustrated the universalist
pretensions of modern scientific culture. However, thegeographical distribution of these stations, largely
concentrated between Drake Passage and Weddell Sea, casts
some doubt on the validity of the research done so far awayfrom the Antarctic mainland. It would seem that mostmembers of the Antarctic Treaty are at best engaged inresearch duplication on the sub-Antarctic environment.
It would be wrong to assume that Antarctica is devoidof humanized landscapes, even if the values shared by thescientific community appear not to be based on a culture
specific to a particular ethnic group. Antarctica has in factas many cultural identities as states that operate scientificstations. The Chinese state’s construction of a station in aterritory previously devoid of any cultural imprint (an eventthat would be impossible to observe in China) constitutes asplendid opportunity to observe the cultural values about
space that an all-male team of Chinese scientists has
transplanted to Antarctica. (The team’s maleness affected
the heroic representation of the expedition, and generated apositive appreciation for the natural and introduced malefeatures—rocks, hill, flagpole—of the station). In theoriginally barren landscape of King George island, Chinesespatial values are indeed easy to notice and analyze.
But what are these values that have given a Chinesemeaning to the site of the Great Wall Station? According
to Guo Kun, the very first task of the expedition was thenaming of the features of the settlement, as giving Chinese
names to the lake, bay, and hills around the station made theinstallation “habitable.” The attachment of toponyms tospecific landforms indicates without ambiguity references to
two landscape readings. The first reference is to the site ofHangzhou, the second to the geomantic landscape archetype.
The location and the orientation of the Great Wall Station
between Xihu, or “West Lake”, and the coast is an invitation
to compare the morphology of the site of the People’s
Republic of China’s frontier outpost in Antarctica with thatof the southern Song capital. Examination of maps of thetwo sites shows the same succession of features (hill, lake,settlement, coast) and the equivalent general orientation.
The direction of reference that geomancy uses in China issouth or the equator line; in the austral hemisphere theequator line is of course in the north. A geomantic
settlement oriented toward the southeast, such as Hangzhou,
would therefore find its mirror image in a site with anortheastern orientation, which is precisely the case of the
Page 14

Great Wall Station.
Located to the east of the Xihu lake, the geomantic siteof the station is delineated (bao) by the semi-circularalignment of Qifeng yan or “Nesting Phoenix Rock”, with
Xishan bao (“West Hill Embrace”), Bada ling (the famous
Great Wall pass, near Beijing) and Wanglong yan(“Watching Dragon Rock”). Qifeng yan protects the northof the site, and Wanglong yan its southeast. Both rocks
serve as the attendants of Pingding shan (“Flat Top Hill”),
which acts as the rear barrier hill of the site in the west.*
Finally, the flagpole is located on an axis that we can tracefrom Pingding shan to the mouth of the creek that drains the
Xihu lake. The axis bisects the site equally into two halves;
buildings are built to the north of the axis, while the wharf,
heliport and meandering roads are built south of the axis.
The geomantic significance of this functional distribution is
not clear, except maybe in the case of two buildings, thenorthern and southern oil depots, whose locations in relation
to the axis are perfectly symmetrical. Perhaps because of
the similarity of the shape of “Flat Top Hill” with that of theJupiter geomantic hill, which is supposed to have steep
rounded sides and a flat summit, and therefore with the
Wood element that geomancers have associated with thisplanet, both oil depots have been located as far away as
possible from Pingding shan and close to the attendants.
Pingding shan would have provided Wood to feed a fire,and locating oil depots in the immediate vicinity of this hill
would have been dangerous. This geomantic interpretation
would have been weaker had the expedition members givena different name to Pingding shan, had they located a flat
topped hill somewhere else, had Pingding shan not evokedfor them a conscious association with Wood, and had fire
not been the most serious hazard for their survival, as thedestruction of the two oil depots would have meant the lossof heat, fuel and power.
Scientific rationale and political ambition directed theconstruction of the Great Wall Station of China in Antarctica.
The colonization of the site of the station also illustrates
two principles in Chinese spatial values, identification andtransposition. The Great Wall Station is identified with theidealized locale of Hangzhou, and the geomantic landscapearchetype is transposed to the new locale of the Great Wall
Station.
This combination allows the metaphoricalannexation of a territory, that of Zhongguo Nanji or“Chinese Antarctica”, while denying its formal inclusion in
the Chinese sphere, which would be impossible in terms of
the Antarctic Treaty. At the same time, this combination
rejects the station site as a locale with its own references,such as ice, which covers more that 99 per cent of
Antarctica.
NOTE*

The orientation of each feature does not need to be literal
to allow a geomantic reading. Wanglong might mean
looking toward the Dragon, and qifeng causing the Phoenix

to rest in a place for nest-building. The Dragon of Great
Wall Station is in the southeast of the site, but its position
would become due east if we tilted the site in order to have it
face north (austral equivalent of Chinese south). The
Phoenix of the station would then move toward thenorthwest (austral equivalent of southwest), and Flat Top
Hill would slide to the southwest (austral equivalent ofnorthwest) of the geomantic site.
SOURCES
Beijing Review, 27, no. 50 (10 December 1984): 4–5 and
33–34.
Beijing Review, 28, no. 24 (17 June 1985): 25–28.
David G. Campbell, The Crystal Desert: Summers in
Antarctica. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992.
Stephan Feuchtwang, An Anthropological Analysis ofChinese Geomancy. Vientiane: Vithagna, 1974.
Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Guojia Nanji Kaocha
Weiyuanhui, comp., Zhongguo Nanji Changcheng Zhan
ditu [Map of the Great Wall Station of The People’s
Republic of China]. Beijing: Zhongguo ditu chubanshe,
1986.

Thesis abstract
Demography and Development:
Chinese Traditional Agriculture in
Historical Perspective
Ph.D. thesis, Nanjing Agricultural University,
1995
Wang Jiange
Laiyang Agricultural College
This dissertation analyses the development of Chinese
agriculture under the pressure of population growth fromremote antiquity to recent times, chiefly emphasizing
technological and environmental aspects.
About 8,000 years ago, primitive forms of rice andmillet agriculture originated at almost the same time in the
middle Yangzi Valley and the Loess Highlands. In the
Loess Highlands, owing to the distinctive soil and ecologicalconditions of the region, the original form of agriculture(swidden farming) evolved rapidly under the impulsion of
population pressure. On the basis of analysis of vegetation
cover and archaeological sites, we may infer that in the

Cishan Culture (c. 6500–5000 B.C.), the period of fallow
was approximately forty years. However, two thousand
years later, in the Banpo Culture, the average fallow period
was already less than ten years, and the cultivation of
shrub-covered land was common. By the time of theLongshan Culture (c. 3000–2000 B.C.), the leading position
was occupied by a system of short fallow-period agriculture
on land covered predominantly by mixed grasses. At thesame time, elementary forms of state organization emergedon the basis of the relatively intensive primitive agricultureof the Yellow River Valley. This in turn stimulated thefurther intensification of agriculture, leading to theformation of a technological system whose chief features
were dryland agriculture and small-scale irrigation works.
With the coming of the Iron Age, there was atechnologically induced spurt in population growth, andbefore long, the resulting population pressure had led to thecreation of an early form of the traditional Chinese system ofhighly intensive agriculture in the Loess Highlands. As
this system spread into the downstream area of the Yellow
River Valley after the foundation of the empire (221 B.C.),
not only was the technological system of dryland agriculture
perfected, but, in the new ecological conditions, it became
able to support higher population densities. During theHan dynasty (202 B.C.–A.D. 220), population densities inthe downstream area of the Yellow River Valley were ashigh as 70 to 80 persons per square kilometre. However,after five centuries of intensive land use, soil fertility andother environmental conditions underwent severe
degradation, and the agricultural ecosystem of the entire
Yellow River basin became more and more unstable underpopulation pressure. The resulting social crises led to four
centuries of turmoil. In the end, however, the autocratic
empire found a new foothold for maintaining its economic
foundation in South China, the region of wet-rice agriculture.
On account of the relatively high population carrying
capacity of the wet-rice agriculture zone, population growth
and the further development of agricultural technology took
place in that zone from the sixth century till the fourteenth.
The new techniques were highly labour-intensive. Thisapplies not only to such intensive land-utilization practices
as the rice-wheat double cropping system, the double
cropping of rice, and the terracing of hillsides, but also tointensified fertilization and planting techniques.
With the great demographic growth from thefourteenth century on, especially in the seventeenth tonineteenth centuries, the population load carried by South
China in turn basically reached peak level, given theconstraints of traditional technology. Meanwhile, thenation-wide environmental crisis became everywhereperceptible. The disasters created by high populationpressure on the fragile ecosystems of the Loess Highlands
and the mountains of the South-west were especially severe.
The accompanying social unrest served as the fuse leading
to warfare and revolutions from the mid-nineteenth century
on.
Page 15

Fax: 86-10-532-5495

Up-date to
Directory of Subscribers
Further corrections, up-dates, and additions may be sent to
the editor for inclusion in subsequent issues of thenewsletter.

Changes of address/corrections
N.B. Only items in which there has been change areincluded here. For unchanged particulars, see original
directory.
Irene Bloom
ibloom@SMTPLink.Barnard.Columbia.edu
Chao Yuan-lingE-mail: ychao@a1 mtsu.edu
Christian Daniels
Tel: 81-3-3910-9147
Fax: 81-3-5974-3838
Fang Jinqi
Center for Climatic Research
University of Wisconsin - Madison
1225 West Dayton St.
Madison WI 53706-1695
U.S.A.
J. Michael Farmer
E-mail: jmfarmer@students.wisc.edu
Mary Felley(Ecosystems Ltd.)E-mail: ecosys@hk.super.net
Tel: 852-2553-0468
Fax: 852-2870-0378

Charles Hellawell
P.O. Box 91
Bond University
Queensland 4229
Australia
E-mail: s1262@kowande.bond.edu.au
Raymond Lum(Harvard-Yenching Library)E-mail: rlum@fas.harvard.edu

Hugh L. Shapiro
Department of History
University of Nevada at Reno
Reno NV 89557-0037
U.S.A.
E-mail: shapiro@scs.unr.edu
Tel: 702-784-6451
Fax: 702-784-6805
World Wide Fund for Nature(China Programme)
E-mail: chinawwf@asiaonline net
Tel: 852-2526-1011
Fax: 852-2586-1146
Yang Dong
1 Deauville Lane #715
Don Mills
Ontario
Canada M3C 1Z6
E-mail: dyang@YorkU.CA

New subscribers

Philippe Forêt
Center for Asian Studies
University of Texas at Austin
Campus Mail 59300
Austin TX 78712-1194
U.S.A.
E-mail: phcforet@mail.utexas.edu

Carol Benedict
History Department
Georgetown University
Washington D.C. 20057
U.S.A.
E-mail: benedicc@gusun.georgetown.edu
Has recently completed book on bubonic plague in
19th-century China; present topic is changing ideas about
leprosy in the 19th and early 20th centuries in China, andthe policy implications of these changes.

James Harkness
The Ford Foundation
International Club
Jianguomenwai Dajie No. 21
Beijing
China 100020
E-mail: Ford-Beijing@CGNET.COM

Annette Berkovits
Education Department
Wildlife Conservation Society/Bronx Zoo
Bronx NY 10460
U.S.A.
E-mail: aberkovi@inet.ed.gov
Tel: 718-220-5131

Page 16

Fax: 718-733-4460
Working with the Chinese government, Kung Ming Instituteof Zoology, and Education Commission of Yunnan Province
to promote conservation education in China.

E-mail: holtom@u.washington.edu
Tel: 206-517-4119
China’s energy situation (e.g. coal), and the relationshipbetween trade and the environment.

Cao Bingwu
Department of Archaeology
The National Museum of Chinese History
Beijing
China 100006
E-mail: wugate@mimi.cnc.ac.cn
Tel: 86-10-605-6729
Fax: 86-10-512-8986
Environmental archaeology of China.

Alan L. Kolata
Department of Anthropology
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago IL 60637
U.S.A.
E-mail: a-kolata@uchicago.edu
Tel: 312-702-7729
Fax: 312-702-4503
Long-term human-environment interactions, human ecology,
and agricultural development. Present focus is on westernSouth America. Leads multi-disciplinary research team ofaquatic and terrestrial ecologists, landscape- andagro-ecologists, agronomists, and anthropologists in
examining the history of agriculture and environmental
change in the high plateau of Bolivia and Peru. Will soon
expand research into northern Thailand.

Chang Po-jen
96 Min Chuan Rd.
HualienTaiwan R.O.C.
Tel: 038-338422
Fax: 038-335714
Natural resources and environmental history.
Elisabeth J. Grinspoon
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Sage Hall205 Prospect Street
New Haven CT 06511
U.S.A.
E-mail: elisabeth.grinspoon@yale.edu
Tel: 203-787-3603 (h)Fax: 203-432-6216
The political ecology of forest conservation in South-west
China. Endeavouring to characterize the various
relationships within and among the various levels of thenature reserve management bureaucracy, while paying
close attention to the consequences of these humanrelationships on rainforest stand dynamics and biologicaldiversity.
Betsy J. Hale
School of Natural Resources
Ohio State University
Contact at home address:
225 Garden Road
Columbus OH 43214
U.S.A.
E-mail: bhale@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Tel: 614-447-9204
Forest history and sylvicultural practices in north-east
China.
Kim Holtom
8943 Ravenna Ave. NE
Seattle WA 98115
U.S.A.

Lillian M. Li
Department of History
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore PA 19081
U.S.A.
E-mail: lli1@cc.swarthmore.edu
Tel: 610-328-8134
Fax: 610-328-8171
Famine, agriculture, food supply, and river control, from
Qing till present day. Completing a book on the Hai River
Basin (Zhili/Hebei) over the last three centuries, including
an analysis of Qing grain prices.
John McNeill
History Department
Georgetown University
Washington D.C. 20057
U.S.A.
E-mail: MCNEILLJ@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu
Kenneth Pomeranz
History Department
University of California at Irvine
Irvine CA 92717
U.S.A.
E-mail: kpomeran@benfranklin hnet.uci.edu
Tel: 714-824-5169
Fax: 714-824-2865
Late Imperial and Republican era social, economic, andenvironmental history, with an emphasis on agriculture;
deforestation and problems of “sustainable growth”;
comparative economic development.

Page 17Sung Bin-min
Institute of Natural Resources
National Dong Hwa University
HualienTaiwan R.O.C.
Tel: 038-662500 ext. 174
Fax: 038-662533
Recreation/tourism resource management.
Wang Jiange
The Library
Laiyang Agricultural College
Laiyang
Shandong
China 265200

Submission and Subscription Information
1. Submission information. Contributions should besent to Helen Dunstan at Dept. of History, Indiana State
University, Terre Haute IN 47809, U.S.A. (e-mailHIDunsta@Ruby.indstate.edu). “Noticeboard” items andmini-articles are equally welcomed, and may be submitted in
English, Chinese, French, or Japanese.
Pinyinromanization is preferred.
Mini-articles should notnormally exceed 2,000 words (or 2,700 Chinese characters);
the absolute maximum length is 3,000 words (4,000 Chinesecharacters). Translations of scientific technical terms should
be provided if possible. If possible, please send anelectronic version of any English-language contribution
exceeding 750 words, or containing many numbers. The
preferred formats are ASCII or WordPerfect 5.0 or 5.1 on a3.5” diskette, or an ASCII text file via e-mail. Hard copy
should be provided as well.
2. Subscription information. E-mail subscriptions arefree (at least for the time being). To subscribe, please send
name, address, e-mail address, fax and telephone numbers(optional), and a brief but precise statement of your researchinterests to HIDunsta@Ruby.indstate.edu.
The hard copy version is available in both English andChinese (full or simplified characters). It costs US$10.00
per year (US$12.00 for international air mail); however,subscriptions in the People’s Republic of China will be free
for the time being. Subscribers living in the U.S. or mostother countries should send their subscription, in U.S.
currency, together with the subscription information
requested above to Helen Dunstan at Dept. of History,
Indiana State University, Terre Haute IN 47809, U.S.A.
Cheques, drafts and money orders should be made payable
to Chinese Environmental History Newsletter.
Subscribers resident in Australia, Britain, France,
Japan or Taiwan may send their subscription in local
currency (along with the subscription information) to theirnational distribution coordinator. The coordinators andannual subscription rates are as follows. Please note thatthe original subscription rates were estimates, and may have
Page 18

been higher than the actual costs incurred by the distribution
coordinators. It may be that some coordinators still haveenough funds left from previous subscriptions to cover themailing of the next issue. If you would like to save somemoney, you could telephone or e-mail your coordinator (seedirectory of subscribers for e-mail addresses), and ask
whether you need to renew your subscription at this time.
AUSTRALIA:
Dr Carney Fisher
Centre for Asian Studies
University of Adelaide
P.O. Box 498
AdelaideSouth Australia 5061
Tel. (08) 303-5930
Subscription: A$10.00 p.a.
BRITAIN:Mr Kegang Wu
Department of Geography
University of Liverpool
Roxby Building
P.O. Box 147
Liverpool L69 3BX
Tel. 0151-794-2835
Subscription: £5.00 p.a.
Make cheque payable to K. Wu
FRANCE:
Frédéric Obringer
Route de Laval
77120 MauperthuisTel. (1) 64-03-07-20
Subscription: 50.00 FF p.a.
JAPAN:
Prof. Seo TatsuhikoInstitute of History and Anthropology
University of Tsukuba
Tsukuba
Ibaraki(Postcode: 305)
Tel. 0298-53-4050
Subscription: ¥1,000 p.a.
TAIWAN:Prof. Wang Hurng-Jyuhn
Institute of Natural Resources
National Dong Hwa University
HualienTaiwan R.O.C.
Tel. 038-662500, ext. 175
Subscription: NT$ 260 p.a.
Editorial disclaimer. The Chinese Environmental History

Newsletter is edited by Helen Dunstan, Department ofHistory, Indiana State University. The views expressed in
the newsletter do not necessarily reflect those of the editor.

Page 19