Cultural Responses to the "Incredible Famine'' of 1876-1879 in China

FAIN: FT-52680-04

Kathryn Jean Edgerton-Tarpley
San Diego State University (San Diego, CA 92182-0001)

My book project focuses on cultural responses to trauma, particularly disparate reactions to the massive famine that killed at least ten million people in North China in the late 1870s. While the heart of this exploration of how culture is involved in giving meaning to disaster is an analysis of local-level famine accounts from one province in North China, I also examine how the disaster was depicted by Qing officials and by Chinese and British newspaper editors who covered the disaster from treaty-port Shanghai. Before submitting my manuscript for publication, I plan to substantially revise one chapter of my work by using previously unavailable archival sources in order to provide a fuller picture of the Qing Court's belated and contradictory responses to the famine.