Conference on the History of the Environment in China
A brief report for CITAS by Robert Marks (rmarks@whittier.edu)


Organized by Professors Mark Elvin of Australian National University and Liu
Ts'ui-jung of the Academia Sinica (Taiwan) and sponsored by the Chiang
Ching-kuo Foundation for International Exchange, ANU, and the Academic
Sinica, "The Conference on the History of the Environment in China" brought
together 30 scholars in various disciplines from around the world to examine
aspects of the environmental history of China.  The conference was held 13-18
December 1993 in Hong Kong.  

Following a keynote address on Saturday, 13 December by Dr. Wang Gungwu,
well-known historian of China and Vice-Chancellor of Hong Kong University,
over the next six days the conference participants presented their papers
grouped around the general topics of "Forests," "Water," "Demography,"
"Disease," "Ideas and Policies," "Climate," "Economic Development and the
Environment," and "Comparisons with Japan and Southeast Asia."  The papers
presented at the conference are appended, alphabetically by author.

As the first conference of its kind regarding the history of China's
environment, the presentation and discussion of the papers constituted the
intellectual meat of the proceedings.  The discussion of the papers was
fascilitated not only by their early and universal distribution to all
participants, but also by the multi-disciplinary and multi-national nature of
the group.  Not only was the conference the first time historians had joined
with hydrologists, foresters, biologists, and MDs to consider China's
environmental history, but scholars from Japan, North America, Europe, and
Australia joined Chinese colleagues from Taiwan and the PRC to discuss and
share findings.  Historians certainly learned from colleagues in the
sciences, but those in the sciences also learned about historical method. 
And all learned from their Chinese colleagues' often encyclopedic grasp of
the source materials.  All in all, the conference was quite extraordinary,
thanks in large part to the abilities of the organizers in bringing together
such a diverse group of scholars with common and overlapping interests.

Among the outcomes of the conference are: (1) plans to publish revised
versions of the papers in conference volumes in both English (by Cambridge
University Press) and Chinese (by the Institute of Economics, Academia
Sinica); and (2) the creation of newsletter on Chinese environmental history.
 The newsletter will be distributed via e-mail; those interested in receiving
the first issue should contact Professor Helen Dunstan
(HIDunsta@Ruby.indstate.edu).  A more detailed and extensive report on the
conference written by conference organizer Mark Elvin will be included in the
first issue.

Papers presented at the "Conference on the History of the Environment in
China" included the following:

Ch'en, Kuo-tung.  "Non-reclamation Deforestation in Taiwan, ca. 1600-1976."
Coaldrake, William.  "Recreating the Built Environment: The Environmental
History of the Castletown of Matsushiro (Japan)."
Dunstan, Helen.  "Official Thinking on Environmental Issues and the State's
Environmental Roles in Late Imperial China."
Elvin, Mark and Su, Ninghu.  "Action at a Distance: The Influence of the
Yellow River on Harngzhou Bay since a.d. 1000."
Finnane, Antonia.  "Water, Love, and Labour: Readings of the Jiangbei
Environment."
Fisher, Carney.  "Plague in Chinese History."
Holzner, Wolfgang.  "Man's Impact on the Vegetation and the Landscape of
Tibet and the Inner Himalaya."
Lamouroux, Christian.  "From the Yellow River to the Huai: New
Representations of a River Network and the Hydraulic Crisis of 1228."
Li, Bozhong.  "Changes in 'Heaven,' 'Earth,' and 'People' and Wet Rice
Production in Ming and Qing Jiangnan."
Liu, Chih-tan.  "Rice Production and Climate Chagne in Taiwan: 1921-1991."
Liu, Ts'ui-jung.  "The Han Immigrants and Formation of Settlements: A
Preliminary Study of Environmental Change in Taiwan."
Lu, Yun.  "Chemical Fertilizer Consumption in Taiwan: A Retospective on the
Influential Policies and Factors, 1953-1992."
MacPherson, Kerrie.  "Cholera in Its Home?  The Great Epidemics in China,
1820-1930."
Marks, Robert.  "'It Never Used to Snow:' Climate Change and Agricultural
Productivity in Late Imperial South China."
Menzies, Nicholas.  "The Villagers' View of Environmental History in Yunnan
Province."
Morris-Suzuki, Tessa.  "Environmental Problems and Perceptions in Early
Industrial Japan."
Murphey, Rhoads.  "Chinese Environmental History in Compararive Perspective."
Osborne, Anne.  "Highlands and Lowlands: Economic and Ecological Interactions
in the Lower Yangzi Region under the Qing."
Santangelo, Paolo.  "Echologism versu Morality: Conceptions of Nature in
Ming/Qing Fiction."
Shiba, Yoshinobu.  "Envrionment vs. Water Control: The Case of the Southern
Hang-chou Bay Area since the Mid-T'ang through the Ch'ing."
Stargardt, Janice.  "Earth, Air, Rice Water: The Elements of Early
Environmental and Agricultural Change in Peninsular Thailand."
Tung, An-ch'i.  "Taiwan's Hydro-Electricity and Industrialization in the
Twentieth Century."
Vermeer, Eduard.  "Population and Ecology along the Frontier in Qing China."
Wang, Hurng-jyuhn.  "State of the Environment in Taiwan, 1970-1990."
Will, Pierre-Etienne.  "Efforts to Restore the Zhengguo Canal Irrigation
System in Shaanxi during the Later Imperial Period."
Zhang, Peiyuan.  "Climate Change during the Last 2000 Years and Its Impact on
Human Activities."
Zhang, Yixia, and Mark Elvin.  "Environment and Tuberculosis in Modern
China."

END OF REPORT