Chinese Environmental Humanities

Chinese Environmental Humanities showcases contemporary ecocritical approaches to Chinese culture and aesthetic production as practiced in China itself and beyond. As the first collaborative environmental humanities project of this kind, this book brings together sixteen scholars from a diverse range of disciplines, including literary and cultural studies, philosophy, ecocinema and ecomedia studies, religious studies, minority studies, and animal or multispecies studies. The fourteen chapters are conceptually framed through the lens of the Chinese term huanjing (environment or “encircling the surroundings”), a critical device for imagining the aesthetics and politics of place-making, or “the practice of environing at the margin.” The discourse of environing at the margins facilitates consideration of the modes, aesthetics, ethics, and politics of environmental inclusion and exclusion, providing a lens into the environmental thinking and practices of the world’s most populous society.

“Chia-ju Chang has edited a far-ranging and scholarly overview of recent developments in Chinese environmental humanities and provided a theoretically sophisticated analysis of the field through her opening chapter. That broad sweep is followed by chapters with Incisive close readings of film, documentaries, and nonfiction; a second section treating urban environmental issues in ecomedia; and a third emphasizing sustainability and Buddhist ethics. The scholarly depth will satisfy China experts, yet chapters provide sufficient context for the novice reader.” (Patrick Murphy, Professor Emeritus, Department of English, University of Central Florida, USA)

“Chinese Environmental Humanities is not categorized within Sinology. It demonstrates an innovatively comparative and refreshingly transnational approach to Environmental Humanities. The book’s focus on “the discourse of environing at the margins” offers a new angle from which to see the politics and aesthetics of environmental inclusion and exclusion.  A must-read book for those who are interested in ecocriticism, environmental studies, multispecies studies, Asian studies, and other related fields.” (Masami Yuki, President of ASLE-Japan, Routledge Environmental Humanities Series Co-editor)

“Chia-ju Chang’s timely collection Chinese Environmental Humanities: Practices of Environing at the Margins is comprised of 14 fascinating chapters that examine silkworms, migrant workers, ecomedia, animal rights, Buddhism, and sustainability. The chapters also explore traditional Chinese concepts, such as ziran (Nature), huanjing (environment) and shengtai wenming (ecological civilization), to forge new environmental perspectives in the Anthropocene. Although “environing at the margins” as the subtitle playfully indicates, this collection powerfully illustrates how “environing” in China and Asia is never marginal and how concepts and symbols from the Chinese culture can help enhance the field in new directions.”  (Serpil Oppermann, Professor of Environmental Humanities, Cappadocia University, Turkey) 

“Chia-ju Chang’s groundbreaking edited volume skillfully weaves together insightful essays on diverse aspects of the Chinese Environmental Humanities by contributors based on three continents and representing fields from across the humanities and social sciences.   Chinese Environmental Humanities: Practices of Environing at the Margins makes a powerful case for humanistic inquiry in addressing the most urgent challenges of our era, and its focuses on practices of “environing” bring to the fore vital yet marginalized discourses.” (Karen L. Thornber, Professor of Comparative Literature and of East Asian Languages and Civilizations Victor and William Fung Director, Harvard University, USA)

“This book makes a tremendous contribution to global environmental humanities by zeroing in on a vast bodyof ideas and practices about the environment, nature, earth, ecology, humanity, and animals in China’s long tradition.  The reader will discover a series of illuminating, wide-ranging case studies on literature, philosophy, religion, art, film, and media as they pertain to the environment.  The contributors together make a timely intervention in the central themes and topics of contemporary humanities and cultural studies.” (Sheldon Lu, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California, Davis, USA)

“China’s path into the future will decide the fate of the Anthropocene. For the environmental humanities, it is thus of paramount importance to understand the complex and conflicting ways in which Chinese culture has conceived of the relationship between humans and their ecological environment. In this task, Chia-ju Chang’s insightful and capacious collection of essays is an indispensable resource.” (Hannes Bergthaller, Professor of Literature, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan)

“Chinese Environmental Humanities builds essential bridges and uncovers striking connections about one of the world’s oldest civilizations. It is a must-read book.” (Simon C. Estok, author of The Ecophobia Hypothesis (2018))

“Anglophone ecocriticism has been hindered by a neglect of China and Chinese cultures. Chinese Environmental Humanities represents a great advance in our access to basic concepts, important debates, and key texts in Chinese ecocriticism. This foundational collection will create vibrant conversations around aesthetics, translation, ecomedia, and multispecies ethics in cross-cultural perspective. It should become a cornerstone of the Environmental Humanities in the twenty-first century." (Anthony Lioi, Associate Professor of Liberal Arts and English and Director of the Writing and Communication Center, The Juilliard School, USA)

Chia-ju Chang is Associate Professor of Chinese at Brooklyn College–CUNY, USA. Her book Global Imagination of Ecological Communities: Chinese and Western Ecocritical Praxis (2013) won the 2013 Bureau of Jiangsu Province Journalism and Publication award in China.  She also co-edited Ecocriticism in Taiwan: Identity, Environment, and the Arts (2016).