BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Regional Man-land Relationship in the Northern Chinese Frontier in
  History - Professor Deng Hui\, Peking University 
DTSTART:20150713T111000Z
DTEND:20150713T120000Z
UID:TALK60054@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:31344
DESCRIPTION:The Ancient northern Chinese frontier zone comprises all or pa
 rt of seven modern Chinese provinces\, Gansu Province\, Ningxia Hui Autono
 mous Region\, Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region\, Shanxi\, Liaoning\, Jili
 n and Heilongjiang\, in an arc spanning more than 2\,000 km and ranging fr
 om the deserts of Central Asia to the Manchurian forests. Indeed the north
 ern frontier regions have gained near-mythic proportion in Chinese history
  and culture. Today three dimensions of the North China frontier are parti
 cularly important: its geopolitical significance along the Mongolian\, Rus
 sian borders\; its environmental fragility\; and its multicultural populat
 ion and heritage. A historical geography of this region will provide an im
 portant and fundamental basis for contemporary understanding and managemen
 t of regional issues concerning peoples and environments.\n\nAcademic rese
 arch on the northern frontier regions and their significance in Chinese hi
 story and development became significant with the landmark studies of Owen
  Lattimore in the 1920s and 1930s. Lattimore described a frontier increasi
 ngly polarized between two vastly different cultures: the Chinese realm of
  walled cities with intensive\, sedentary agriculture and the nomadic worl
 d of the steppe with extensive\, mobile economy-- neither in the long run\
 , able to subdue the other---separated by the Great Wall\, and a transitio
 nal zone took shape between the two groups of peoples where political and 
 cultural affiliation vacillated in response to overall geopolitical advant
 age. Lattimore's work not only contributed to a better understanding of Ch
 ina\, but added new dimensions to world-wide study of frontiers as well.\n
 \nSeven decades later\, in changed intellectual circumstances and with a w
 ealth of new empirical research\, the old issue seems worth reopening. The
  field of historical geography provides a rich and diverse context for stu
 dies of frontier history. Historical geographers particularly concerned wi
 th understanding historical trends in human use of the environment\, envir
 onmental history\, and settlement patterns. Through an integration of natu
 ral science\, social science and humanities methodologies\, we could be ab
 le to achieve a broad-ranging and comprehensive analysis which maintains r
 elevance to contemporary environmental and settlement issues. Thus histori
 cal geography serves as a center for the research\, which will then draw o
 n multidisciplinary research works in related fields such as history\, arc
 heology\, and environmental science. Within this broad framework\, the res
 earch plan will mainly focus on the following four parts: the ecology of f
 rontiers\, man-land relationship in history\, driving factors behind the l
 andscape changes\, and the frontiers and social changes in history.
LOCATION:Seminar Room\, Main Geography Department Building\, Downing Place
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR