Title: History of Climate and Society: Climate Reconstruction and Impact based on Archives of Societies in China

Authors: Qing Pei

Affiliations: Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, Department of Chinese History and Culture, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Abstract: Current global warming highlights the need to investigate history as a reference for contemporary climatic change and its challenges. A growing body of research in the history of climate and society has demonstrated the usefulness of “archives of societies”—including early instrumental records, descriptions of weather and seasons, and artefacts such as high-water marks—to work in conjunction with natural climate proxies and provide a more complete picture of past weather and climate as well as societal impacts and adaptations. With its unique wealth of historical documents, China has made significant contribution in this field. Nevertheless, the rich documentation on the history of climate in China has remained largely unfamiliar to non-Chinese scholars. To bridge this gap, features of historical documents from China, which has been an important element of the CRIAS working group project, will be introduced with basis of various spatiotemporal scales. Based on Chinese historical documents, critical works by Chinese scholars on climate reconstruction and social responses to climate change across different scales will be explained. The presentation will consider how this scholarship may help us search for successful modes of transformation and resilience to climate change. Furthermore, it will discuss how work in the history of climate and society helps to bridge interests of different PAGES working groups and different methods and perspectives from the natural and social sciences and humanities.

Biography: Dr. Qing Pei is working at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as Associate Professor with a joint appointment between the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, and the Department of Chinese History and Culture. Before joining PolyU, he used to work at the Education University of Hong Kong, the University of Cambridge, the University of Zurich, and the University of Hong Kong. His research interests traverse both physical and social sciences, including historical geography, history of climate and society, and social-ecological resilience. He has published more than 70 papers and 1 monograph. He also has got many awards, such as Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme of Hong Kong Research Grants Council; Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards, Second-class Award in Natural Sciences, the Ministry of Education, China; Carson Fellowship, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany; Swire Scholarships; and Li Ka Shing Prize.