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Thesis ID: CBB001561402

A Natural Place for Nationalism: The Wanglang Nature Reserve and the Emergence of the Giant Panda as a National Icon (2004)

University of California, San Diego
Esherick, Joseph W.
Pickowicz, Paul G.

Publication Date: 2004
Edition Details: Advisor: Esherick, Joseph W.; Pickowicz, Paul G.
Physical Details: 355 pp.
Language: English

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Animals Science and government Nature and its relationship to culture; human-nature relationships Environmental sciences Conservation biology Human-animal relationships 20th century, late China Sichuan Sheng (China)

In my dissertation I examine the economic and political correlations between the history of conservation in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the twentieth-century emergence of the giant panda as a national treasure. My research explores this relationship by means of a focused examination of the origins and impact of the creation of the first panda protection reserve, the Wanglang Nature Reserve in Pingwu County, Sichuan. The purpose of my study is three-fold. First, I examine the extent to which economic concerns and the political value of the giant panda were explicit factors in the creation and management of the reserve; second, I look at how the creation of Wanglang reflects broader nature protection agendas; finally, I explore how early efforts to protect the panda integrated the local area and its communities into the nation. As the giant panda continued to achieve positions of greater prominence as a national icon, issues surrounding its preservation had an increasingly direct impact on nature protection policy. With the use of government policy papers, scientific and popular journal articles, and interviews with participants in government, wildlife research, and members of the local communities, I trace the development of China's nature conservation policy at the national, provincial, and local level, and specifically in Pingwu County, Sichuan from the 1960s, when the reserve was founded, through 2002, when it was promoted to a national-level reserve. By that time conservation in China had become an object of international cooperation. Nature protection in the PRC began as a means of studying natural systems for development insights. It later employed the rhetoric of rational resource use, unexpectedly expressing striking similarities to capitalist conservation theories that were prevalent during the early twentieth century. After the Chinese government embraced the giant panda as a precious and rare species to be protected, it found itself caught between local communities and nature-protection advocates; one applying pressure for access and the other for restrictions. At each step, the panda served as a bridge between broader society, where it acted as a symbol, and its home rage, where it affected human interaction with the natural landscape.

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Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 69/05 (2008). Pub. no. AAT 3316807.

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