HIS 3332 - Hydraulic Society: State and Society in China

Credits: 4.00
Two conflicting images, China and its coherent relation with nature (harmonious nature) and China as the most populated manufacturing in the world (defeated nature), have clicked in the minds of popular preview about China. In this course we will examine Chinese relations with nature through the history of hydraulic projects. We will look at China?s water-control projects and its impact on Chinese local societies from the Song to contemporary China (1300-2000). We will explore which parts of the country, which peoples (ethnicity, gender, class), and which hydraulic projects have been the winners and losers in the different eras. From there, we will further examine continuity and ruptures in state policies, political ideology, and institutional politics behind hydraulic projects in specific historical contexts. Finally, we will examine crucial turning points in the history of water control in China and see how various historical hydraulic
imaginaries live on in the present.

McDaniel Plan: International Nonwestern, Social, Cultural, and Historical Understanding, Textual Analysis