Will the Dyke Hold? Interactive Relationships between Humans and Non-human Actants around Yellow River Dykes, 18th Century to 20th Century

Abstract

This thesis project not only aims to conduct a non-anthropocentric study of Yellow River dams and dykes, contributing to a better understanding of the local hydraulic engineering project from an ecological perspective. The project considers the Yellow River dams and dykes as not only human-built infrastructure that transformed the local landscape but also as “manufactured micro-ecologies”. Such micro-ecologies witnessed the participation and interactions of multiple ecological actants, while its (un)sustainability catalyzed the changing narratives and practice of humans towards other non-human agents. Inspired by the concept of “distributive agency,” this research will try to explore, explain, and excavate the powers of non-human ecological subjects in a non-humancentric way. The whole thesis project constitutes three main sections (excluding the introduction and conclusion). The primary sources that this project relies on range from Qing memorials, official archives mainly from the Yellow River Conservancy Commission Archive (huanghe shuili weiyuanhui dang’an 黃河水利委員會檔案, YRCCA), newspapers, literature, images, archaeological materials, and oral histories.