Description | Every year lots of great books about China get published, books that deserve to be widely read and discussed. Book reviews are helpful, but take months or even years to come out. To make it easier for China scholars to discuss with each other some of the recent English-language books they are reading, the University of Washington China Studies Program is starting a virtual China Studies Book Club. We think it will be fun to have conversations about books we find exciting, provocative, or moving and invite China scholars elsewhere to join us. Second Meeting – April 13: Chris Courtney, The Nature of Disaster in China: The 1931 Yangzi River Flood (Dec 19, 2019). 304 pages. From the publisher: In 1931, China suffered a catastrophic flood that claimed millions of lives. This was neither a natural nor human-made disaster. Rather, it was created by an interaction between the environment and society. Regular inundation had long been an integral feature of the ecology and culture of the middle Yangzi, yet by the modern era floods had become humanitarian catastrophes. Courtney describes how the ecological and economic effects of the 1931 flood pulse caused widespread famine and epidemics. He takes readers into the inundated streets of Wuhan, describing the terrifying and disorientating sensory environment. He explains why locals believed that an angry Dragon King was causing the flood, and explores how Japanese invasion and war with the Communists inhibited both official relief efforts and refugee coping strategies. This innovative study offers the first in-depth analysis of the 1931 flood, and charts the evolution of one of China’s most persistent environmental problems. Click here for book listing (Amazon). |
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