Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2023. US$28.00, paper. ISBN 9780824895594.
Qiliang He, author of The People’s West Lake,offers a compelling examination of the interaction between human will and natural forces within the framework of Maoist ideology, particularly in the transformation of West Lake through various “propaganda-campaign projects.” These projects were “designed to produce visible and tangible results, thereby serving the purpose of legitimating the new political system in post-Liberation China” (7). Mao’s ambition to reshape nature and demonstrate the Party’s capacity to control and harness the natural world for socialist progress is encapsulated in his assertion: “If nature has the power to determine us, we also have the power to determine nature.” However, this assertion reflects the central tension between human ambition and natural forces, as the state’s efforts to reshape West Lake through dredging, afforestation, and collectivization were continuously thwarted by the unpredictability and recalcitrance of nature.
A key argument the author makes in the book is that local residents did not view themselves as active resistors or oppositional actors to the state’s collectivization efforts, but rather as exercising “expressive” or “nonpurposive” agency—defined as being “survivors, freeloaders, opportunists, and counteracting actors” (16). This perspective reframes the concept of resistance, suggesting that agency was not always overt or politically motivated. Instead, it was often driven by everyday needs and the pragmatics of adapting to the conditions imposed by the state’s propaganda-driven campaigns. Moreover, in many cases, the local residents actually benefitted from these propaganda campaigns, rather than consciously opposing or resisting them.
However, as the author argues, such nonpurposive counteractions can still contribute to revising, reshaping, reworking, or even undermining the state’s efforts in shaping public perception and enacting its political agenda. These acts of resistance, though not overtly political or consciously defiant, had profound effects on the implementation of key socialist projects, including the dredging of West Lake, the collectivization of pig farming, and the removal of lakeside tombs. They reveal the limits of the state’s power to control both the physical landscape and public perception, showcasing the agency of local residents in ways that the Party could not fully anticipate or manage.
In chapter 2, the author discusses the efforts to reshape the space around West Lake to serve Maoist ideals, such as using it as a venue for political gatherings and promoting collective work. The state’s goal was to redefine West Lake, moving it from a site of cultural significance to a site for political education, public recreation, and ideological consolidation. In particular, the Flower Harbor area of the lake, once a symbol of imperial leisure, was repurposed as part of the socialist project for state-driven recreational activities and political displays.
However, the natural environment did not conform to the state’s design. The fish-watching rituals of local residents, as the chapter discusses, were not politically charged activities but acts of personal and collective enjoyment that resisted the instrumentalization of nature for political purposes. The lake’s ecology, including its fish, water, and natural beauty, remained a space where the everydayness of people’s lives defied the politicized image of the lake promoted by the state. While the government had hoped to control the symbolism and function of the lake, nature’s persistence in the form of personal rituals and the natural flow of the lake proved resistant to this imposed transformation.
In chapter 3, the author addresses the problems of the afforestation movement. While the state adopted it as a way to transform Hangzhou into a modern socialist city, contributing to both economic development and ideological alignment, the movement failed due to unintended ecological consequences, particularly the invasion of pests and the damage to pine trees in the West Lake region. The forests that were meant to embody the success of socialist policies instead became a source of struggle between foresters and tea growers, further demonstrating the difficulties in managing nature for ideological purposes. The invasive pests and the failure of the trees to thrive disrupted the state’s goal of using afforestation as a symbol of environmental control and agricultural modernization. Nature, in this case, did not conform to the Party’s vision of harmony and productivity, but instead imposed a kind of resistance that forced the state to rethink its ecological strategies.
In both chapters 4 and 5, the author argues that local nonpurposive resistance through actions like freeloading and subverting collectivization policies also disrupted the state’s plans. The failure of collectivized pig farming and the opposition to the removal of lakeside tombs were not consciously political acts of defiance but were driven by the pragmatics of survival and personal interests. These actions, while not designed to challenge state policies, contributed to undermining the legitimacy of state campaigns and revealed the limits of state control over both nature and people. In the case of pig farming, the pollution that animal manure caused and the pig farms’ usurpation of historical sites ran counter to the state’s efforts to develop Hangzhou as a tourist city, while the tombs, which held deep cultural significance for locals, were recovered and reburied after the Cultural Revolution, counteracting the state’s efforts to eradicate cultural heritage.
The book’s analysis would greatly benefit from two additional discussions. First, while the focus on nonpurposive agency is a valuable contribution, it pays less attention to the collaborative aspects of local interactions with the state. Given that the time period covered in the book spans from 1949 to 1976, the impacts of various political campaigns—including the anti-rightist campaigns, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution—likely shaped or even altered local dynamics at West Lake. In this context, individuals navigating the complexities of survival and self-interest may have collaborated with state initiatives. Collaboration, within the Maoist framework, can also be seen as a form of agency, involving voluntary or involuntary compliance and negotiation with the state’s ideological demands.
Second, the book lacks a discussion of issues related to gender and identity in the context of Maoist transformations. These social factors could add significant depth to the analysis of how different groups within the population engaged with state projects. For instance, did gender play a role in shaping people’s participation in state campaigns or in the ways they resisted or collaborated? A more intersectional analysis could have enriched the discussion of local agency and resistance, highlighting how identities beyond class or ideology might have shaped the experience of Maoist policies at West Lake.
Overall, this book contributes significantly to the fields of environmental history, Chinese history, and political sociology, offering a compelling study of how the physical and cultural landscape of West Lake became entangled with political ideologies under Maoist China. By examining both the top-down imposition of state narratives and the everyday acts of “nonpurposive” (in)actions and negotiation by local citizens, the book provides a rich, multi-layered understanding of the relationship between nature, politics, and identity in Maoist China.
Fei Yan
Tsinghua University, Beijing