Science and Politics in China’s Official Water System: the Management of the Qiantang River (1927-1949) (2020)
Li, Haijing (Author)
Church, Sally K. (Author)
East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine
Volume: 51-52
Pages: 51-89
Western water science and technology were introduced to upgrade China’s traditional water management methods and strategies during the Nanjing decade (1927-1937) under the Nationalist government. The engineering efforts expended to control the Qiantang River were typical examples of such initiatives. The primary strategy to protect areas surrounding the river from the destruction caused by the Qiantang bore was for centuries one of “passive defence”, with the construction of defensive seawalls featuring prominently among the methods used. However, the Qiantang tide consistently broke through these defences, and caused devastation. After 1927, while the old defensive methods were not completely discarded, more active strategies of river regulation were introduced, under the combined influence of Western methods, materials and expertise, and Western-trained Chinese engineers who stepped forward to tackle the problem. These activities were interrupted during the war years (1937-1945), but resumed again after the war. During the 22 years from 1927 to 1949, in four discrete stages, different technological solutions were devised, priorities identified, guidelines developed and strategies attempted, with each stage championed by a different engineer in charge. Gradually these efforts formed into what can be called the Qiantang River Project, a concerted effort to apply the knowledge of Western science and technology to change previous “passive defence” methods to “active governance” strategies for river regulation that combined both prevention and control. Efforts at each stage were influenced by factional struggles at the top of the government, and also affected by Western competition for Chinese interests. These developments were all part of the complex interaction of science and politics that took place in the management of the Qiantang River between 1927 and 1949.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Schönach, Paula;
(2015)
Expanding Sanitary Infrastructure and the Shaping of River History: River Vantaa (Finland) 1876--1982
(/isis/citation/CBB001422577/)
Article
Kregg Hetherington;
Elie Jalbert;
(2023)
The Big Flush of Montreal: On affective maintenance and infrastructural events
(/isis/citation/CBB288892399/)
Book
Paolo Sorcinelli;
Mihran Tchaprassian;
(2014)
L'alluvione. L'Italia e il Polesine nel 1951
(/isis/citation/CBB934705874/)
Chapter
Franco Pozzati;
(2022)
L'Alluvione del Polesine del 1951: Un caso emblematico. I problemi non ancora risolti
(/isis/citation/CBB697454961/)
Book
Ling Zhang;
(2016)
The River, the Plain, and the State: An Environmental Drama in Northern Song China, 1048-1128
(/isis/citation/CBB899763419/)
Chapter
Giorgio Zennaro;
(2022)
Il governo delle acque nella Serenissima
(/isis/citation/CBB785231894/)
Book
Franco Cazzola;
(2021)
Uomini e fiumi. Per una storia idraulica ed agraria della bassa pianura del Po (1450-1620)
(/isis/citation/CBB034173063/)
Chapter
Stefano Piazza;
(2021)
Come studiare la storia delle politiche pubbliche sulle acque
(/isis/citation/CBB686723309/)
Book
Tvedt, Terje;
Chapman, Graham;
Hagen, Roar;
(2010)
Water and Geopolitics in the New World Order
(/isis/citation/CBB001031277/)
Book
Vincenzo De Meo;
Ilaria Giannetti;
Stefania Mornati;
(2022)
La sistemazione del Tevere urbano. 50 anni di cantiere dalle carte del Genio Civile di Roma (1876-1926)
(/isis/citation/CBB630885965/)
Chapter
Hans Heiss;
(2016)
Alla scoperta di un paesaggio immaginario: l'Adige tra natura, economia e nazione in Tirolo/Trentino nell'Ottocento
(/isis/citation/CBB945426345/)
Article
McFarlane, Wallace Scot;
(2012)
Defining a Nuisance: Pollution, Science, and Environmental Politics on Maine's Androscoggin River
(/isis/citation/CBB001232553/)
Book
Pietz, David Allen;
(2015)
The Yellow River: The Problem of Water in Modern China
(/isis/citation/CBB001553584/)
Thesis
Li, Cho-ying;
(2007)
Evolutionary Statecraft: The Ming State and Local Elites in the Field ofHydrological Management in the Lower Yangtze Delta
(/isis/citation/CBB001561354/)
Article
Sun, Li;
Sun, Da-wei;
(2009)
On the Soviet Union's Nuclear Technical Assistance to China
(/isis/citation/CBB000952318/)
Article
Isaenko, Oleksandr;
(2013)
Role of the Engineer I. H. Aleksandrov in the Use of Power Resources of the Angara River (30-ies of the XX Century)
(/isis/citation/CBB001321270/)
Article
Liu, Bo-jie;
Li, Yan-ping;
(2008)
Marconi's Journey to China in 1933
(/isis/citation/CBB000952332/)
Book
Erie, Steven P.;
Brackman, Harold David;
(2006)
Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District, Growth, and the Environment in Southern California
(/isis/citation/CBB000950897/)
Article
Lü, Daoen;
(2013)
A New Study on the Invention of Photo-Zincography and Photo-Lithography and Their First Introduction to China
(/isis/citation/CBB001200175/)
Article
Baichun Zhang;
(2018)
The Early Modernisation of Technology in China (1860s–1930s)
(/isis/citation/CBB912588366/)
Be the first to comment!