BOOK REVIEWS

Pierre Gentelle, Chine et “diaspora” [China and the “diaspora”]

Pierre Gentelle has written this book for a student readership of candidates in France’s qualifying examinations for teachers of history and geography, the CAPES and the Agrégation. This is a textbook, intended to present in a comprehensive and educational way some recent advances in this field.

One should not go by the title, which borrows the heading of the exam syllabus and does not correspond to the book’s contents. The Chinese diaspora is touched upon only briefly (pp. 82-88) and mainly from two angles: the question of defining it, and its relationship with mainland China. The writer has chosen to focus his interest, not on China’s external geopolitics, but on its internal geopolitics. Readers may be surprised, nevertheless, at his insistence (on two occasions, pp. 81 and 88) that Taiwan “is China”. Which China are we talking about here? What might be obvious to the geographer raises a question both for the political scientist and for those involved in local politics. The writer might have dwelt at greater length than he actually does in his conclusion (p. 169) on the complex process by which the Chinese nation was formed.

A more appropriate title for the book would be “The Regional Geography of China” or (as the preface is headed) “China and its Regions”. Pierre Gentelle’s intention is to offer the reader a collection of case studies. Being aware that a plethora of studies on China overall is already in existence, the writer proposes “several precise examples showing how the territory is organised”, set against a very broad range of illustrative documentation: satellite pictures, cartographic documents, composite figures and diagrams.

The books three chapters look at China from every angle. The first is a classic chapter of physical geography relating to the natural space. Another is devoted to regional organisation throughout the long sweep of Chinese history. The writer’s talent in devising diagrams to summarise a wide range of information is always in evidence, and they amount to effective shortcuts that should be extremely useful to his readers. The book’s concluding chapter presents us with several representative models for the geography of China. Their interest lies in the practical application of a more general geographical question: how are regions composed, how is the territory divided up? Unfortunately, while he quoted the writers whose work elaborates these questions, Gentelle was not able to give a fuller account of their thinking (doubtless for lack of space).

The heart of the book consists of case studies, which have no monographic ambition—there is no attempt to say everything about any particular region—but which do offer an opportunity to present a problem or a theme from a geographic viewpoint. The natural characteristics of the territory of China and the history of its agricultural development (and especially the history of the management of its water resources) are studied in three cases: the Fen Basin (Shanxi), Lake Dongting (Hunan) and the upper valley of the Yangzi (The Three Gorges Dam). The questions of how the territory is organised and how its population is distributed are approached by reference to three provinces: Hunan, Hubei and Guizhou. Shanghai and its delta illustrate the issue of urban development and the connection between urban and rural spaces.

It is clear that Gentelle has taken the utmost care to consistently place his facts (the floods of summer 1998 or the role of major transport routes in development) within a historical perspective, and his highlighting of the economy is equally attractive. These points give the book qualities that make it a useful textbook for students and teachers alike.

Translated from French original by Gilles Guiheux