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Fishing Wars and Environmental Change in Late Imperial and Modern China

Micah S. Muscolino’s Fishing Wars vividly describes the reciprocal interactions between the sea and the people whomake their livelihood from it, social arrangements and institutions, the ecological system and state power. Environmental history, the history of local communities, fishery development, and the transition from Late Imperial to Republican China are all clearly depicted in this book. Muscolino uses appealing stories to convey his in-depth observations and analysis of the conflicts between different fishing groups in the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, with a focus on the abundant natural resources in the waters around the Zhoushan Archipelago in southeastern China. Environmental politics is always related to “argumentative struggles,” as Hajer (1995) puts it. The discourse of environment thus consists of various storylines. What attracts me in this book is Muscolino’s grip on the different storylines of how various people and institutions have interacted with the ocean and its fishery. Drawing on his historical training and using an anthropological approach,Muscolino unfolds the story by exploring the weather and oceanic conditions, demographic changes, sizes and types of fishing boats and fishing gear, fishing technologies, local identities and social organizations, local temples and collective observances, government regulations and the responses of local officials and elites, the lives of fishermen and their families, the involvement of a newly emerging state apparatus, and the introduction of a new knowledge, mentality, and rationality vis-à-vis the fishery. These details provide a clear context for his research and illuminate the storylines and discourse coalitions underlying the historical events he discusses. Local temples, for instance, functioned not only as the religious centers of local people from the same native place but also as the organizations that facilitated official regulations and resolved disputes. In Muscolino’s words, local temples were “the apparatus of coordination and control necessary for the coordination of environmental resources” (45). Whereas fishermen went to local temples to pray for protection and