Speaker: Chris Courtney, Associate Professor of Modern Chinese History, University of Durham, UK.

Cold chains are a vital component of modern cities. Most histories trace their origins to the advent of the ice trade in the nineteenth century. This paper argues that cold chains have been around a lot longer. In China, they have been used to provision cities for around a thousand years. Later, the British consciously emulated these Chinese infrastructural arrangements, using them as the inspiration for their own cold chains. This paper continues by describing how industrial cold chains allowed treaty port foreigners in China to manufacture temperate lifestyles in tropical climes, while also amassing great fortunes by exporting frozen protein. After this system was disrupted by war and revolution, the Chinese Communist government struggled to rebuild their infrastructural capacity, and had to rely on ersatz solutions, such as cave cold storages. This paper concludes by exploring the refrigerator revolution, when cold chains were reinvented in 1980s China.

Chris Courtney is Associate Professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of Durham, UK. He a social and environmental historian who focusses upon the city of Wuhan and its hinterland. He has published on the history of hazards such as floods and fires, including the monograph The Nature of Disaster in China. In his more recent research, he has examined the history of extreme heat, from a technological, medical, and social perspective. He is currently writing a monograph entitled Wuhan: City at the End of Empires.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97955535212