Chinese borderlands: Mapping race, land and climate at Kara Khoto : Critical Explorations of Nationalism and the Environment
Type
presentation
Date Issued
2007-04-21
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper on the historical geography of the Heihe River delta (Inner Mongolia) will analyze the role that cartography can assume in border studies. Chinese and Japanese geographers have extensively Kara Khoto (or Heicheng, Ejin Qi), a Silk Road city that European scholars first surveyed between 1906 and 1935. I am interested in the mapping conducted then of the cultural, ethnic, and ecological borders that used to separate pre-modern nomad from peasant societies. I will therefore examine with you the textual and pictorial records collected by the geologists, geographers and archaeologists who surveyed the Chinese borderlands. This could feed a later discussion on the significance that between the two world wars the Gobi desert took for the understanding of climate change and the interpretation of long-tem interactions between nature, civilization and barbarism.
Language
English
Keywords
Chinese Central Asia
Kara Khoto (Heicheng)
frontier studies
scientific expeditions
environmental history
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Event Title
Association of American Geographers, 2007 meeting
Event Location
San Francisco CA (United States)
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
215248