Knowing Manchuria: Environments, the Senses, and Natural Knowledge on an Asian Borderland

Both fellow interlocutors and readers who are encountering the debates about the identity of Manchuria as a new topic will appreciate Ruth Rogaski's contributions to the field of Northeast Asian history as well as the comparative and multidisciplinary approach to the spatially focused interpretations of the region's past and present. Synthesizing evidence from previous scholarship with extended vignettes that illustrate comprehensive narratives, Rogaski demonstrates that Manchuria as a political battleground between imperial and national states must share the stage of history with the equally important perspective of Manchuria as an environmental zone that has been shaped and in turn influenced how ecology and human contact form places.1Chapters in this study simultaneously follow and transverse the variables of time and political change in Manchuria. Readers most interested in the Qing may gravitate toward the first three chapters about the region as a source of authority and a “second home” as a destination of exile in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Korean studies specialists will likewise appreciate chapter 3 about how the same mountain became revered by the Chosŏn and Qing states. Chapters 4 through 8, which are situated chronologically from the early to late twentieth century, appeal to a wider audience through the themes of biodiversity, territorial claims bolstered by scientific research, and the transformation of habitats predominantly occupied by animals and plants into “productive” spaces for human life and material gain. This multifaceted journey is framed for the reader by an introduction and conclusion in which the author reflects on the research she based on a multilingual corpus of textual sources and her travels to the region.Likewise, this study draws in readers and presents a full historical panorama of Manchuria through the lens of its natural features, seeking to define a place that has inspired deeply divided views about the historical and present-day parameters of not only China, since much of the land lies uncontested in the People's Republic, but also Japan, Korea, and Russia, as well as the domain of numerous “Indigenous” populations. Rogaski introduces and addresses many facets of these debates about “belonging,” hoping to settle them by turning away from the irreconcilable differences that persist, even if political characteristics remain in the foreground. Instead of staking any further claims or even remaining rooted in Chinese history, Rogaski takes the persuasive position that Manchuria was constructed through what happened literally on or below the ground and through what was lost in environmental disasters, as much as what was gained and prized by the armies, explorers, and settlers who became stakeholders in its narrative.Knowing Manchuria serves many purposes for the multiple fields it influences. Students and readers with limited or no relevant background knowledge benefit from Rogaski's selected summaries and interpretations of arguments from key works in English and Asian-language scholarship. Specialists in Asian environmental history can consult the detailed evidence about coal mines, voles, and plagues. Researchers pursuing related projects may consult this monograph together with other recent publications about how borderland histories are very much informed by the concrete contours of the spaces as well as how they are assessed in abstract or “imaginary” terms.2Rogaski has produced a history of Manchuria that both obviates the question of what nation(s) can claim what has often been known as a complex borderland and also is enriched by her personal experiences of observing the region firsthand. She inspires other scholars to emulate the approach of sensorial analysis and brings the developments originating in environmental history and history of science about Northeast Asia to a broader audience.