Decentralisation of historical geography in China 2006–2020

Abstract

This article reviews the status and recent developments of historical geography in China during 2006–2020. The decentralisation of research institutions and academics characterised this era of economic growth. Research topics in the field of historical geography also diversified tremendously. However, Chinese historical geography education and research is overly skewed towards history. Importantly, the dearth of original history and philosophy of geography studies results in a lack of consensus over the nature of historical geography. Developments in the history of cartography could serve as a remedy for this crisis. From the perspective of decolonial geography, historical geography in China is positioned in relation to that developed in the West. Furthermore, the difficulties and disorderliness in reshaping a unique and deep‐rooted geographical tradition are discussed.

History and philosophy of geography III: Global histories of geography, statues that must fall and a radical and multilingual turn

“…Among scholarship from ‘outside the core’ that is nourishing English-speaking journals, it is also worth mentioning some recent contributions from China, accounting for the increasing development of historical geographies that target internationalisation as a priority (Ding, 2021), and addressing the history of Chinese geography in comparison with Anglo-American concurring trends. Junxi Qian and Han Zhang match the arguments of GBS’s editors in criticising the commonplaces considering as ‘international [only] journals published in English’ (Qian and Zhang, 2021: 1), and highlight the importance of political contexts for the production of geographical knowledge.…”