Remaking the Earth, exhausting the people : the burden of conservation in modern China / Micah S. Muscolino.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Muscolino, Micah S., 1977- Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmental policy--China--Gansu Sheng--History--20th century.

Environmental policy.

Agriculture and state--China--Gansu Sheng--History--20th century.

Agriculture and state.

Soil conservation--China--Gansu Sheng--History--20th century.

Soil conservation.

Water conservation--China--Gansu Sheng--History--20th century.

Water conservation.

Gansu Sheng (China)--Rural conditions--History--20th century.

Gansu Sheng (China).

Gansu Sheng (China)--Environmental conditions--20th century.

Place of Publication:

Lightning Source (Tier 4), 2025.

Summary:

"Remaking the Earth, Exhausting the People focuses on Gansu's Tianshu Prefecture, detailing over the course of seven chapters how environmental changes played out in villages, on farms, and within households, how the Chinese state imposed the burden of conservation on these communities, and how their inhabitants navigated these demands. By draining rural society of resources and vitality, this cycle widened the gap between China's countryside and its cities, an inequality that endures to the present"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

"Tianshui's three treasures" : conservation in wartime Gansu

"Speak bitterness to floods" : mobilization and resistance in the early 1950s

"Getting organized is powerful" : conservation and collectivization

"Dams have really worn us out" : labor, local knowledge, and the 1956 irrigation campaign

"Learn from Dengjiabao" : conservation militarized and aestheticized

"Water has aroused the girls' hearts" : gender and conservation

"Conservation was primary, farming was secondary" : the Great Famine and its aftermath

Epilogue : lives, landscapes, and legacies.

ISBN:

0-295-75399-4