Floods, Religion and Trade: A Lost River Town in Late Imperial and Modern Chongqing

Abstract

This panel considers the intricate relationship between environment and society through historical and contemporary perspectives. It explores diverse religious and cultural forms, social phenomena, and political-economic formations in which environmental problems, in particular water, are intertwined with the agenda of state-building in Southwest China. The four papers examine, respectively, the process of different ethnic and social groups constructed and represented their water-secured settlements in Yunnan during pre-modern frontier building; the rise and fall of a historical river town that showcase the historical process in making modern and urban China through state manipulation of local religions, guilds, and environment; the organization and mobilization of building the first Chinese modern sewage system in Republican Chongqing; and water management strategies of different localities in contemporary Yunnan. Based on archival research and ethnographic fieldwork from the fields of history, historical anthropology, and political science, the panel as a whole hopes to bring to bear the theoretical insights and methodological tools emerging from the rising environmental history and urban studies onto topics such as ethnicity, religion, trade, public health, and policy-making, and to enrich the conception of environment and society through the lens of state building.