Darwin in the Middle Kingdom

Darwin in the Middle Kingdom brings science and culture into dialogue to rethink how humanitys relationship to the natural world has been understood in Chinese and Western societies. Taking the Chinese reception of Darwinism as its point of departure, the book examines how scientific developments in Europe and North America have influenced modern Chinese culture and society, while placing Western environmentalism and animal advocacy in relation to the "Middle Kingdom," or China as both a historical civilization and a cultural other in Western imaginaries.The book's scope extends far beyond China and Charles Darwin, exploring the ramifications of evolutionary theory across a wide range of disciplines—from ecology, paleoanthropology, and ethology to philosophy, history, and linguistics. At its core, the book offers an interdisciplinary account of ecological consciousness, tracing its manifestations in Chinese and Western scientific and cultural traditions over the past century and a half. It argues that ecological consciousness, or the awareness of interconnections between lifeforms, ecosystems, and environments, is mediated by language, culture, and disciplinary knowledge. Grounded in textual analysis as well as archival research conducted at major repositories, including the National Archives in College Park and the No. 2 Historical Archives in Nanjing, the study features rare documents, some of which are cited or reproduced here for the first time. Drawing on a broad constellation of methods, archives, and discourses, Darwin in the Middle Kingdom speaks to audiences across the humanities and the sciences as well as to environmentalists, animal advocates, and general readers.