BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies - ECPv6.17.0//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20170312T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20171105T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20180311T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20181104T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20190310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20191103T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20180425T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20180425T170000
DTSTAMP:20180420T143206Z
CREATED:20180420T143206Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180420T143206Z
UID:7082-1524670200-1524675600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Victor Seow - Energy Transitions amidst Regime Change: Mining Coal in the Early People’s Republic of China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Victor Seow\, Assistant Professor\, Department of the History of Science\, Harvard University \nThe decade after the revolution of 1949 witnessed a China that was being made anew. The material transformation of society and economy that had been the goal of preceding regimes was realized to a hitherto unseen degree in the industrial edifice raised by the socialist state. This was an achievement that rested upon a bedrock of fossil fuel energy. In line with centrally directed plans\, the coal that lay in abundance in multiple regions across China was unearthed in mounting quantities\, as Chinese engineers led the excavation of new mines and the introduction of new technologies and techniques\, from the longwall system to hydraulic mining. Yet for all the effort in pushing production\, supply did not seem to be able to catch up with demand\, and by the late 1950s\, China seemed to be facing a coal shortage. Part of the problem was that of thermal inefficiency: for most industrial processes\, Chinese engines\, furnaces\, and boilers were burning more coal than their British and American counterparts. This talk examines efforts by Chinese planners to expand coal output as part of what they saw as a race to outpace capitalist countries in industrial development\, and shows that it was not so much a failure of technology but the fixation on sheer volume that led to a low quality of coal produced\, which in turn compromised the efficiency of the socialist industrial enterprise. \nSponsored by Harvard-China Project on Energy\, Economy and Environment\, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/victor-seow-energy-transitions-amidst-regime-change-mining-coal-in-the-early-peoples-republic-of-china/
LOCATION:Pierce Hall 100F\, 29 Oxford St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures,Events of Interest
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR