Empires of Coal: Fueling China's Entry into the Modern World Order, 1860–1920 by Shellen Xiao Wu (review)

Producing any account of the rise of the modern Chinese coal industry is a challenge, as the process it involved was complicated—industrialization, modernization, imperialism, nationalism, colonialism, and the mechanism of development were all interwoven in the commercial, political, and even cultural arenas. Instead of covering all the possible elements, Shellen Xiao Wu's treatment is selective, choosing to focus on its noneconomic side. Empires of Coal is about the changes that arose in natural resource management as a result of late Qing engagement with imperialism and science, and the heart of the narrative is "when, where, and how China comes into this modern world order" (8). Such an angle has never previously been taken.

The book begins with the story of a German geographer, Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833–1905), in China—his travels, the publication of his volumes on China and their Western influence, and his contributions both to Chinese geography and German imperialism (chap. 2). It is observed in this chapter that the German states of the period could not match the broad reach of the British or French empires but sought to emulate their scientific organizations, and the example of Richthofen represented the less well-studied overseas aspirations of the German Empire. Readers are told that Richthofen's influence was not limited to just introducing the world to China as a mineral-rich land ("the first geological depiction of China in the West" [35]), but that he also ultimately convinced the German Empire to decide on Shandong province as a colonial base on account of its extensive mineral resources. As the author remarks in chapter 4, "These engineers brought with them their own national agendas in addition to their expertise" (126). In the meantime, the relationship between science and imperialism is discussed: we learn, for example, that only during the height of European expansion in the nineteenth century did geology develop as an independent discipline in Europe and the Americas—the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1797 contained no entry on geology, a subject that only began to gain credibility in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a development that contributed to the cementing of colonial power by aiding the extraction of mineral deposits valuable to colonizers (35).

Chapter 3 is devoted to the issue of translation of Western works into Chinese, closely examining three different approaches to the introduction of geology to China through translations of advanced textbooks on geology and mineralogy, practical manuals on mining, and introductory primers on geology. The author notes that the works examined in this chapter were placed "in the context of broad translation—not just of individual works from one language to another but as part of the process of introducing the culture of science and industrialization in China" (67). In this way, many interesting side issues are revealed. One impressive example is the American missionary W. A. P. Martin's (1827–1916) pioneering efforts at introducing science and law. Many of the scientific terms he coined failed to take root, whereas a number of the neologisms he created for international law concepts remain in use today. Not long after he introduced them, terms such as rights (quanli) and sovereignty (zizhu) appeared in negotiations between the Germans and the Shandong provincial government over mining rights and in the national mining regulations from 1902 (75). At the end of this chapter, the author concludes that "it may well be that scientism proved an easier sell than science itself" (94).

Chapter 4 explores the role that foreign engineers played in China, particularly by detailing how Western railroad and mining technology arrived. Again, the author turns to German nationals, citing names including Gustav Leinung, who served for twenty years from 1896 as a foreign expert at Hanyeping Industries and brought about orders for machinery and additional employees from his home country as well as opening a mining college at Pingxiang...