Overview

A study of the politics of rice in Canton, this book sheds new light on the local history of the city and illuminates how China's struggles with food shortages in the early twentieth century unfolded and the ways in which they were affected by the rise of nationalism and the fluctuation of global commerce. Author Seung-joon Lee profiles Canton as an exemplary site of provisioning, a critical gateway for foreign rice importation and distribution through the Pearl River Delta, which found its prized import, and thus its food security, threatened by the rise of Chinese nationalism. Lee argues that the modern Chinese state's attempts to promote domestically-produced ""national rice"" and to tax rice imported through the transnational trade networks were doomed to failure, as a focus on rice production ignored the influential factor of rice quality. Indeed, China's domestic rice promotion program resulted in an unprecedented famine in Canton in 1936. This book contends that the ways in which the Guomindang government dealt with the issue of food security, and rice in particular, is best understood in the context of its preoccupation with science, technology, and progressivism, a departure from the conventional explanations that cite governmental incompetence.

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9780804772266

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In this creative and thoroughly researched book, Seung-joon Lee explores a vitally important but largely ignored topic in Chinese history: rice. Lee situates the marketing and consumption of rice at the intersection of major forces in the early twentieth century, from imperialism and revolution, to regionalism and nationalism, to urban modernization. —Steven B. Miles, author of The Sea of Learning: Mobility and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Guangzhou

In this creative and thoroughly researched book, Seung-joon Lee explores a vitally important but largely ignored topic in Chinese history: rice. Lee situates the marketing and consumption of rice at the intersection of major forces in the early twentieth century, from imperialism and revolution, to regionalism and nationalism, to urban modernization. --Steven B. Miles, author of The Sea of Learning: Mobility and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Guangzhou

Author Information

Seung-joon Lee is Assistant Professor of History at the National University of Singapore.

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