Ts'ui-jung Liu - Böcker

The study of Asian historical demography has lagged behind that of its European and American counterparts for some time. This volume serves to narrow the gap by drawing together material from scholars specializing in demography across the spectrum of Asian countries. The collection divides into four parts and contains nineteen chapters covering issues on comparative perspective, fertility, disease and mortality, and marriage and family. The geographic coverage of the chapters is also wide, extending from East Asia to South Asia, with specific emphasis on Japan, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, India, and Sri Lanka. Authors focus on a whole range of social groups, discussing how demographic issues affect and have affected both urban and rural dwellers from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.This volume, which is perhaps the first to bring together a number of in-depth, specialist studies on Asian population history, should prove a useful and engaging tool for both students and academics in the fields of demography, history, and Asian studies.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives. This book provides a comprehensive examination of environmental history in East Asia, ranging temporally from the Ming dynasty to the 21st Century and spatially across China, Japan and Taiwan.nbspSplit into four parts, the chapters cover a wide range of fascinating topics, comparing environmental thought and policy in the East and West, the transformation of the landscape, land resource utilization and impact of agriculture and disasters and diseases across the region.

Covering the ancient period through to the 21st century, this book examines how landscapes have changed across East Asia over time. Featuring examples of a variety of landscapes, from the riverine and agricultural to the urban and aesthetic, this books thus presents a comprehensive review of East Asian environmental history.The eleven chapters, written by an international team of leading scholars, provide analysis of a wide range of spatial, temporal, and thematic considerations. Seeking to use the concept of landscape to evaluate the opportunities and constraints faced by East Asian communities, it also explores the relationship between landscape transformation and human agency. In so doing, it aims to survey the current methodology and scholarship in the field and demonstrate a new approach which encompasses socio-economic and cultural history, as well as GIS-based geographical studies.Providing an in-depth examination of landscape change across the sub-regions of China and Japan, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Asian History and Environmental Studies.

This edited volume engages with some of the most dynamic themes in current research on East Asian environmental history, including agricultural science, war and the environment, imperial forestry, oceanic history, and the history of energy.Chapters in this book supply an overview of environmental history as a rapidly expanding field, continuing to generate valuable insights into the mutually constitutive relationship between human societies and the biophysical environment. The book is divided into three parts: Part I consists of three chapters related to land use, while Part II includes five chapters that focus on water, a topic of perennial concern among environmental historians of East Asia, especially as it relates to irrigation, food production, and marine fisheries. Part III consists of two chapters, discussing the impact of new technologies on air quality, in addition to the history of energy in East Asia, which has emerged as an important area of inquiry at the intersection between both environmental history and the history of science and technology. Perspectives on Environmental History in East Asia: Changes in the Land, Water, and Air will appeal to students and scholars of East Asian studies, environmental history, and environmental sciences.

This edited volume engages with some of the most dynamic themes in current research on East Asian environmental history, including agricultural science, war and the environment, imperial forestry, oceanic history, and the history of energy.Chapters in this book supply an overview of environmental history as a rapidly expanding field, continuing to generate valuable insights into the mutually constitutive relationship between human societies and the biophysical environment. The book is divided into three parts: Part I consists of three chapters related to land use, while Part II includes five chapters that focus on water, a topic of perennial concern among environmental historians of East Asia, especially as it relates to irrigation, food production, and marine fisheries. Part III consists of two chapters, discussing the impact of new technologies on air quality, in addition to the history of energy in East Asia, which has emerged as an important area of inquiry at the intersection between both environmental history and the history of science and technology. Perspectives on Environmental History in East Asia: Changes in the Land, Water, and Air will appeal to students and scholars of East Asian studies, environmental history, and environmental sciences.

As environmental history has developed as growing sub-discipline within the study of history, great emphasis has been placed on the importance of adopting an interdisciplinary approach. Indeed, as Environmental History in East Asia shows, by drawing on research and methodologies from the fields of science, technology, geography, geology and ecology, we are able to develop a much richer understanding of a region’s history. This book provides a comprehensive examination of environmental history in East Asia, ranging temporally from the Ming dynasty to the 21st Century and spatially across China, Japan and Taiwan. Split into four parts, the chapters cover a wide range of fascinating topics, comparing environmental thought and policy in the East and West, the transformation of the landscape, land resource utilization and impact of agriculture and disasters and diseases across the region. A diverse selection of case studies are used to illustrate the chapters, including the role of Daoism, Qing pasturelands and 21st century swine flu. Truly interdisciplinary in approach, this book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Asian environmentalism, environmental history, Asian anthropology, Asian development studies and Asian history more generally.

This collection of essays was the first relatively comprehensive survey of the environmental history of China. Written by some of the world's leading Western and Chinese experts, Sediments of Time crystallises a new and distinct field of scholarship that studies what happens when human social systems interact with the rest of the natural world. This book shows how deforestation, land-reclamation, settlement, and water-control, when mixed with an ever-changing climate, shape a distinct and often precarious environment. Pioneering essays explore new methodologies of historical environmental research, comparative perspectives setting China in the context of the West and Japan, and the impact of the early modern ecological transformation on the spread of diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis. This is an indispensable book for anyone who wants to understand either the foundations of modern China, or the deeper origins of many of China's most daunting contemporary challenges.

Covering the ancient period through to the 21st century, this book examines how landscapes have changed across East Asia over time. Featuring examples of a variety of landscapes, from the riverine and agricultural to the urban and aesthetic, this books thus presents a comprehensive review of East Asian environmental history.The eleven chapters, written by an international team of leading scholars, provide analysis of a wide range of spatial, temporal, and thematic considerations. Seeking to use the concept of landscape to evaluate the opportunities and constraints faced by East Asian communities, it also explores the relationship between landscape transformation and human agency. In so doing, it aims to survey the current methodology and scholarship in the field and demonstrate a new approach which encompasses socio-economic and cultural history, as well as GIS-based geographical studies.Providing an in-depth examination of landscape change across the sub-regions of China and Japan, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Asian History and Environmental Studies.

Environment, Modernization and Development in East Asia critically examines modernization's long-term environmental history. It suggests new frameworks for understanding as inter-related processes environmental, social, and economic change across China and Japan.

Environmental history has evolved into a well-established historical subfield which has broadened the horizons of historical research, beyond human affairs, to include the study of human interactions with natural and man-made environments. This broadened scope has attracted scholars from many different fields; a development which is reflected by this volume as it highlights the recent studies on East Asian environmental history by scholars of History, Economic History, Political ecology, Sociology and Environmental Studies.This book examines the local realities and environmental changes in East Asia, and is one of a few publications in English on the subject. Contributors apply rich historical material, maps and statistical data to reveal the local environmental realities infused by global perspectives. Part I deals with attitude toward nature, focusing on the soundscape conceived by traditional Chinese literati and on "industrious revolution" in Tokugawa Japan. Part II includes four case studies which respectively discuss the hydraulic management and political ecology in the Yongle reign (1403-1424), the "Woosung Bar" controversy in the 1870s, the expansion of Daihaizi Reservoir in Xinjiang in the 1950s, and interactions between the indigenous communities and NGOs in Hualien, Taiwan. Part III presents case studies of Japan dealing with natural disasters: volcano eruption, floods, and the human actions around Tokyo since the eighteenth century. These chapters and the insights they offer provide the reader with the most recent research on East Asian environmental history. Covering the geographical areas of Japan, North and Northwest China, the Lower Yangzi Delta and Taiwan, and the timeframe spanning the seventh century BC to the present day, the book will be of great interest to anyone studying the history of East Asia, environmental history or environmental studies.

As environmental history has developed as growing sub-discipline within the study of history, great emphasis has been placed on the importance of adopting an interdisciplinary approach. Indeed, as Environmental History in East Asia shows, by drawing on research and methodologies from the fields of science, technology, geography, geology and ecology, we are able to develop a much richer understanding of a region’s history. This book provides a comprehensive examination of environmental history in East Asia, ranging temporally from the Ming dynasty to the 21st Century and spatially across China, Japan and Taiwan. Split into four parts, the chapters cover a wide range of fascinating topics, comparing environmental thought and policy in the East and West, the transformation of the landscape, land resource utilization and impact of agriculture and disasters and diseases across the region. A diverse selection of case studies are used to illustrate the chapters, including the role of Daoism, Qing pasturelands and 21st century swine flu. Truly interdisciplinary in approach, this book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Asian environmentalism, environmental history, Asian anthropology, Asian development studies and Asian history more generally.

Environmental history has evolved into a well-established historical subfield which has broadened the horizons of historical research, beyond human affairs, to include the study of human interactions with natural and man-made environments. This broadened scope has attracted scholars from many different fields; a development which is reflected by this volume as it highlights the recent studies on East Asian environmental history by scholars of History, Economic History, Political ecology, Sociology and Environmental Studies.This book examines the local realities and environmental changes in East Asia, and is one of a few publications in English on the subject. Contributors apply rich historical material, maps and statistical data to reveal the local environmental realities infused by global perspectives. Part I deals with attitude toward nature, focusing on the soundscape conceived by traditional Chinese literati and on "industrious revolution" in Tokugawa Japan. Part II includes four case studies which respectively discuss the hydraulic management and political ecology in the Yongle reign (1403-1424), the "Woosung Bar" controversy in the 1870s, the expansion of Daihaizi Reservoir in Xinjiang in the 1950s, and interactions between the indigenous communities and NGOs in Hualien, Taiwan. Part III presents case studies of Japan dealing with natural disasters: volcano eruption, floods, and the human actions around Tokyo since the eighteenth century. These chapters and the insights they offer provide the reader with the most recent research on East Asian environmental history. Covering the geographical areas of Japan, North and Northwest China, the Lower Yangzi Delta and Taiwan, and the timeframe spanning the seventh century BC to the present day, the book will be of great interest to anyone studying the history of East Asia, environmental history or environmental studies.