Most environmental histories concern the land and “changes in the land.” On the one hand, that focus seems natural because human beings are land creatures, and environmental history examines the mutual interactions between changes in human society and anthropogenic and natural changes in the environment. On the other hand, from a global perspective, landmasses occupy but one-third of the Earth's surface; the majority is composed of the Earth's oceans. Combining the best of these perspectives, this fine book takes the maturing field of Chinese environmental history from the mainland into the East China Sea.
Micah S. Muscolino examines the fisheries centered on the Zhoushan archipelago off the coast of Zhejiang and Jiangsu. First exploited when the Southern Song established its capital in Hangzhou, the Zhoushan fisheries saw increasing numbers of fishermen (they were all men) from the mid-eighteenth century into the first half of the twentieth century. Muscolino takes the...
