Here Goes!

I came up with the idea a while ago to start a blog while I am in China. Since I am leaving in a few days, I figure I might as well start it. Let's hope I continue with it (Let this be a call to everyone who reads this to bother me to keep posting more).

So to begin, I am heading off to China for an indefinite period of time to do my dissertation research on Chinese rice. Chinese rice, eh? Yes, China grows rice. That is a fact, we know that. So why study it? Well, I am convinced that studying food and agriculture can show a lot about social and environmental changes a society is going through. China, as we all know, is going through massive social and environmental changes. The way that rice is grown, consumed, and managed by the state today is much different than it was just ten years ago. So to highlight the social and environmental change of rice production and consumption, I am looking at short-grain japonica rice that is grown in the northeast of China. I find this rice particularly interesting for several reasons.

1). When I was in Beijing last summer, I heard from scientists and consumers alike that this rice was popular and the quality was considered higher than long grain indica rice grown in China's more southern areas. Much of the long grain indica rice is important to China because it is hybrid rice and produces high yields. For years, the Communist state has been obsessed with self-sufficiency in agriculture and mass quantities of grain. But, now that a market economy is developing and taking off, consumers want higher quality rice. So there are social changes inherent in class and status involved with this rice.

2). The northeast of China is a fascinating region. Formerly known as Manchuria and a Japanese colony, this area of China has a history of ties and connections with Russia, Japan and Korea. Many of these ties were broken off under the Communist rule, but have returned with the reform and opening up in the 1980s, especially with Japanese scientists introducing technologies to grow this rice. So I am looking at the political and economic and geographical ties of rice-growing in this region.

3). In addition to its geo-political ties, this region of China is known as the last agricultural frontier. What used to be mainly forests and wetlands has gradually become an important grain producing region in the last few decades. Much of the grain has been corn and soybeans, but with China's entry into the WTO, they are importing these grains. As a result, they are turning to the grain that is so important to the Chinese--Rice. Rice grown this far north needs less pesticides and fertilizers than rice grown in southern areas because the pests are not as great. Yet, the region has undergone dramatic environmental change to be able to grow rice. So this project looks at the historical and contemporary aspects of environmental change in the northeast of China as it has transitioned to be a major grain producing area.

So I will arrive in Beijing June 10. On June 12, I will leave for an overnight train to Harbin. Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang province in the northeast of China, close to the Russian border. I will spend the majority of the summer taking language classes and setting up my research sites, at various points of japonica rice production, distribution, and consumption. More on this to come-I invite you to come along for the journey!