Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Mao’s catastrophic belief that with the correct political and scientific approach, there are no limits to natural resources.
Several of the books that you’ve recommended seem to lay much of the blame for the current state of the environment at the feet of Mao, and his time in power. Judith Shapiro’s book, Mao’s War Against Nature, for example, ties Mao’s abuse of the people to the abuse of nature. Do you think she has a point?
Yes, she does, and have a look at Mark Elvin’s The Retreat of the Elephants. The environmental history of China is a very interesting one, and there is this mythology that Chinese peasants are somehow in tune with nature. But if you read Elvin you realise that in China there has actually been 2,000 years of unsustainable development and environmental degradation.
It essentially comes from the model of a highly centralised state and its need to accumulate surplus wealth – and certainly under the old imperial system this was produced by the peasants. In fact, it was also the surpluses produced by the peasants that were used for a rapid industrialisation under Mao. And Mao’s of course was a particularly catastrophic period, both for the people and for the environment.
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Isabel Hilton is a London-based journalist and broadcaster, and editor of the website, China Dialogue. Her work has appeared in the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Granta, El Pais and many other publications. She has reported from China, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Europe and has written and presented several documentaries for BBC television. Since 2001 she has been a presenter of the BBC Radio Three's cultural programme, Night Waves. She has authored and co-authored several books and holds an honorary doctorate from Bradford University.
