Carbon Technocracy: Energy Regimes in Modern East Asia

413 Pages·2022·11.819 MB·English

by  Victor Seow

Carbon Technocracy
STUDIES OF THE WEATHERHEAD EAST ASIAN
INSTITUTE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
The Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia University were inaugurated
in 1962 to bring to a wider public the results of signifi cant new research on modern and
contemporary East Asia.
Carbon Technocracy
Energy Regimes in Modern East Asia
VICTOR SEOW
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2021 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief
quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the
University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2021
Printed in the United States of America
30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 72199- 6 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 81260- 1 (e- book)
DOI: https:// doi .org/ 10 .7208/ chicago/ 9780226812601 .001 .0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Seow, Victor, author.
Title: Carbon technocracy : energy regimes in modern East Asia / Victor Seow.
Other titles: Energy regimes in modern East Asia | Studies of the Weatherhead
East Asian Institute, Columbia University.
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2021. |
Series: Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian institute, Columbia
University | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2021031893 | ISBN 9780226721996 (cloth) |
ISBN 9780226812601 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Coal mines and mining—China—Fushun Xian (Liaoning
Sheng)—History—20th century. | Energy policy—China—History—
20th  century. | Energy policy—Japan—History—20th century.
Classifi cation: LCC TN809.C62 F8667 2021 | DDC 622/.334095182—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021031893
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1 992
(Permanence of Paper).
For my parents,
Sally Neo and Seow Chuan Bin,
with love and gratitude

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations / ix
Note on Conventions / xi
INTRODUCTION / Carbon Technocracy / 1
ONE / Vertical Natures / 27
TWO / Technological Enterprise / 69
THREE / Fueling Anxieties / 115
FOUR / Imperial Extraction / 161
FIVE / Nationalist Reconstruction / 208
SIX / Socialist Industrialization / 255
EPILOGUE / Exhausted Limits / 297
Acknowledgments / 325
Bibliography / 333
Index / 385

ILLUSTRATIONS
I.1 Aerial view of Fushun’s Western open- pit mine / 2
I.2 Major coal mines and railway lines in East Asia, ca. 1935 / 20
1.1 “Picture map of Mukden’s famous sites: Including Fushun’s famous sites” / 31
1.2 Inside a dormitory for Chinese workers at the Wandawu mine / 58
1.3 Mantetsu employee residences in Yongantai / 60
1.4 The Fushun Colliery Club / 61
2.1 “The Grand Sight of the Open Working, Fushun Colliery” / 71
2.2 “Before” and “after” photographs of the Qianjinzhai mine’s eastern pit / 74
2.3 Miners in a subsurface working at the Yangbaipu mine / 76
2.4 “The Skip-Machine of the Open- Air Coal- Mine, Fushun” / 86
2.5 Inside the O¯yama mine’s coal dressing plant / 89
2.6 Bucyrus electric shovel at the open- pit mine / 103
3.1 Women, children, and men loading coal by relay onto a ship in the port
of Nagasaki / 119
3.2 Osaka, “Manchester of the Orient” and “Capital of Smoke” / 139
3.3 Cross- sectional diagram of the open- pit mine / 145
3.4 Fushun’s shale oil enterprise from pilot plant to fi nished facility / 148
4.1 The Longfeng mine’s winding tower / 179
4.2 Excerpt from “Map of China’s anti- Japanese war zones and network of resources
and transportation lines” / 188
5.1 Coal yard by the British Cigarette Company buildings along the Huangpu River,
Shanghai / 212
5.2 The Tianfu colliery, near the Nationalist government’s wartime capital
of Chongqing / 230