Awards

• Winner of Academic Excellence Award, Chinese Historians in the United States (CHUS) 2014 (United States)
• Winner of Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Award, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kennesaw State University 2015 (United States)

Overview

The Jianghan Plain in central China has been shaped by its relationship with water. Once a prolific rice-growing region that drew immigrants to its fertile paddy fields, it has, since the eighteenth century, become prone to devastating flooding and waterlogging. Jiayan Zhang consults early records of catastrophic water events and explores their role in shaping Jianghan society in the Qing and Republican periods. In a constantly shifting environment, the peasants of Jianghan were forced to adapt their farming methods; cooperate on complex projects like dike building; and even organize social structures, tenancy arrangements, and lifestyles around the pressure and uncertainty of their environment. The first environmental and socioeconomic history of the region, Coping with Calamity considers the Jianghan Plain’s volatile environment, the constant challenges it presented to peasants, and their often ingenious and sophisticated responses.

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Jiayan Zhang is an associate professor of history at Kennesaw State University.

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