Monday Lecture Day

            Today was full of lectures! We rallied up in the morning to make our way to the SoE building. Our first lecture was with Xiaoling Zhang, a professor at the University of Hong Kong. She is known for her remarkable analysis of sustainable development in China. Her lecture was titled, “Remaking Sustainability Science – New Context, New Challenges”. She focused on three points: the first was the global urban-rural gap, the second was the triple-bottom-line theory, the third was about global urbanization. It is estimated that by 2050, 70% of the world will be urbanized from 29% in the 1950s. China has been developing rapidly, it’s timeline towards urbanization is compressed. China surpassed the 50% urbanized threshold in 2007, using more cement for construction in three years than the US did in an entire century.

The fundamental challenges Zhang identified was this pursuit of economic growth at the cost of perpetuating inequity. China is creating these urban development bubbles at the cost of widening the disparity between different parts of China. Particularly, she identified that China seeks the same western development goals, but requires a transformational shift towards sustainable development. We require more sustainable technologies and operationalizing big data at a global, academic scale. She introduced her remodeling of the triple bottom line by making it three dimensional with a temporal and spatial scale in the middle where sustainability lies. In doing so, this address a time-scale of development in which first focusing on poverty will work towards alleviating other social and environmental inequities.

            My favorite lecture of the day was with Professor Lu, who skipped his bachelor’s degree and received a p.H.d in his historical work of Ancient China at Harvard University and is now teaching at Peking University. He had an interesting insight on Chinese thought with his lecture focused on the ‘Discovery of Ancient China in Xi’an. As this was one of my first introductions into Ancient China, I was intrigued by the influences of different dynasties that formed what China is today. Through a timeline of different dynasties, Lu focused on how writing, political ideology, and cosmology has established the philosophical and cultural identity of modern China. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhou’s rhetoric of religious-political ideology changed from simple power and conquest to an abstract moral and philosophical need in which he rescues the world to remediate the previous dynasties with the Mandate of Heaven.

Following the Zhou was the Qin dynasty, who learned that they require more than just conquest to successfully rule but to actually unify the neighboring states. In doing so, the Qin used writing across its lands to unify imperial orders. Nonetheless, the Qin Dynasty failed to convince people that they belonged to the dynasty and was eventually brought down by rebellions and civil war. The Han Dynasty was established and excelled in silk and textiles as much as their cavalry, creating roads and alliances across China. The Han did more than just sending imperial orders, but used writing as a medium to unity, to share the culture and hearts of their people. Confucianism was later embedded into this spread of culture and ideology, establishing a moral responsibility with the rulers and people. As later dynasties grew and collapsed, these systems of the social-political order have centered and legitimized the uniqueness of later Chinese existence. Unlike any other government, China still carries this guide towards morality, not just law, that has been growing since medieval times.

Lastly, Professor Kristi Straus did a lecture on Salmon Conservation and the Endangered Species Act. It was great to finally have a chance to meet with more of the Tsinghua students. Straus identified the conventional sustainability model that features culture, economy, and ecology. She first introduced salmon and their characteristics as anadromous and semelparous fish. Salmon have ecological importance both directly as a key component of both ocean and land food webs, and indirectly in supplying marine-derived nutrients on productive forest lands. She later defined the Endangered Species Act as the simplest US environmental law. It is unique in the sense that it is one of few environmental laws that are federally enforced instead of by the state. I really enjoyed all the lectures, but all of them felt a bit rush and short. I know three lectures in one day is a lot, but I would not mind spending more time with each!