A great undertaking : mechanization and social change in a late Imperial Chinese coalmining community / Jeff Hornibrook.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hornibrook, Jeff, 1959- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Coal mines and mining--China--Pingxiang (Jiangxi Sheng)--History--19th century.

Coal mines and mining.

Industrialization--China--Pingxiang (Jiangxi Sheng)--History--19th century.

Industrialization.

Pingxiang (Jiangxi Sheng, China)--Economic conditions--19th century.

Pingxiang (Jiangxi Sheng, China).

Pingxiang (Jiangxi Sheng, China)--Social conditions--19th century.

Pingxiang (Jiangxi Sheng, China)--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (288 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany, New York : Suny Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Jeff Hornibrook provides a unique, microcosmic look at the process of industrialization in one Chinese community at the turn of the twentieth century. Industrialization came late to China, but was ultimately embraced and hastened to aid the state's strategic and military interests. In Pingxiang County in the highlands of Jiangxi Province, coalmining was seasonal work; peasants rented mines from lineage leaders to work after the harvest. These traditions changed in 1896 when the court decided that the county's mines were essential for industrialization. Foreign engineers and Chinese officials arrived to establish the new social and economic order required for mechanized mining, one that would change things for people from all levels of society. The outsiders constructed a Westernized factory town that sat uneasily within the existing community. Mistreatment of the local population, including the forced purchase of gentry-held properties and the integration of peasants into factory-style labor schemes, sparked a series of rebellions that wounded the empire and tore at the fabric of the community. Using stories found in memoirs of elite Chinese and foreign engineers, correspondence between gentry and powerful officials, travelogues of American missionaries and engineers, as well as other sources, Hornibrook offers a fascinating history of the social and political effects of industrialization in Pingxiang County.

Contents:

""Contents""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Introduction""; ""1. Scratching the Dirt, Digging the Rocks: The Economy and Technology of Late Imperial Era Pingxiang County""; "" The Setting: Life in “Duckweed Township� and “Peaceful Spring�""; ""Family Farming Strategies: Subsistence through Self-Exploitation""; ""Mining Strategies and Technology""; ""Local Markets and the Furtherance of Subsistence""; ""Local Coal Production and Regional and International Markets""; ""2. Relatives, Clansmen, and Neighbors: Local Politics on the Eve of Mechanization""

""“Our ancestors moved to the mountain region�""""Landholding Incomes and Tenancy Costs""; ""Shaking the Money Tree: Mountain Lords and Mining Labor""; ""Resistance and Negotiation: Using Elder Brothers to Fight Paternalism""; ""Conclusion""; ""3. Self-Strengthening Up Above and Reorganizing Down Below""; ""Late Imperial Reversals on Mining: Hands-Off Becomes Bureaucratized""; ""Sheng Xuanhuai�s Managers""; ""A New Plan: Direct Control""; ""4. Irrevocably Remapping the County""; ""Taking the People�s Livelihood: Purchasing the Mines""

""Trains, Schools, and Fengshui: Purchasing the Railroad Property""""Irrevocable Land Sales: Leaving the People Outside Looking In""; ""5. Mechanization of the Coalmines: Tearing Down and Building Up""; ""Constructing Anyuan: The “Flourishing and Fast-Paced� Town""; ""The Railroad: Delivering Kerosene and Breaking Rice Bowls""; ""The Managerial Center and Living Spaces: “Right royal times they had�""; ""Labor Bosses and Labor Life""; ""The Lows and Very Lows of Modernization: The Fall of the Hanyeping Coal and Iron Company, Incorporated""

""6. Social Atomization and Local Resistance: Divergent Desires and Strategies of Elites and Workers""""Opposing the Greedy Wolf: Elite Resistance""; ""“Local Hooligans�: Commoner Negotiations and Unrest""; ""Conclusion: Great Undertakings around the Globe""; ""Notes""; ""Glossary""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438456898

1438456891