Description
Book SynopsisSince the seventeenth century, Chinese, Japanese, Manchu, Russian, and other imperial forces have defied Manchuria's unrelenting summers and unforgiving winters to fight for sovereignty over the natural resources of Northeast Asia. Until now, historians have focused on rivalries between the region's imperial invaders. Empire and Environment in the Making of Manchuria examines the interplay of climate and competing economic and political interests in the region's vibrant and violent cultural narrative.
In this unique and compelling analysis of Manchuria's environmental history, contributors demonstrate how geography shaped the region's past. Families that settled this borderland reaped its riches while at the mercy of an unforgiving and hotly contested landscape.
As China's strength as a world leader continues to grow, this volume invites exploration of the indelible links between empire and environment and shows how the geopolitical future of this global ec
Trade Review
Overall, Empire and Environment provides a rich array of scholarship that demonstrates the dynamic relationship between Manchuria’s natural environment and a variety of distinctive cultures and political regimes over time.
-- Emily Matson * Pacific Affairs *
Table of ContentsIntroduction / Norman Smith
1 Manchuria: History and Environment / Diana Lary
2 Rival Empires on the Hunt for Sable and Tribal in Seventeenth-Century Manchuria / David A. Bello
3 Inclement Weather and Human Error: Impediments to the Tribute System in Qing Manchuria / Loretta E. Kim
4 Producing Full-Fat Controversy: The Politicization of Dairy Production in Post-Colonial North Manchuria, 1924–30 / Blaine Chiasson
5 “Hibernate No More!”: Winter, Health, and the Great Outdoors / Norman Smith
6 Constructing a Rural Utopia: Propaganda Images of Japanese Settlers in Northern Manchuria, 1936-43 / Annika A. Culver
7 The Garden of Grand Vision: Slums, Deviance, and Control in Manchukuo, 1940-41 / Kathryn Meyer
8 Salvaging Memories: Former Japanese Colonists in Manchuria and the Shimoina Project, 2001-12 / Ronald Suleski
9 Exile to Manchuria: Stories in the Qing and the PRC / Wang Ning
10 “War against the Earth”: Military Farming in Communist Manchuria, 1949-75 / Sun Xiaoping
