The Emergence of Capitalism in China

Planet Money recounts the story of the seminal document that, in 1979, sparked the transformation of China’s economy into capitalism.

A key thing to note: the document was a contract, which assigned property rights to individuals (families actually) rather than the collective. And even though the contract could not be legally binding in communist China, the signers had to be confident enough that it would be respected — by each other at the least.

The result of the change was a 5 fold increase in the amount of food produced by the farm.

Despite the risks, they decided they had to try this experiment — and to write it down as a formal contract, so everyone would be bound to it. By the light of an oil lamp, Yen Hongchang wrote out the contract.

The farmers agreed to divide up the land among the families. Each family agreed to turn over some of what they grew to the government, and to the collective. And, crucially, the farmers agreed that families that grew enough food would get to keep some for themselves.

The contract also recognized the risks the farmers were taking. If any of the farmers were sent to prison or executed, it said, the others in the group would care for their children until age 18.

— Kestenbaum and Goldstein (2010): The Secret Document That Transformed China on NPR’s All Things Considered.

Based on the quotes from the story, the market vs. socialist simulation game seems to capture much of the farmers’ real motivations.

Seeds of Change: Sunflowers

Sunflowers originated in the Americas, but for a long time, especially in the 1800’s, has been planted and used a lot more in Eurasia. Today, a lot more is being produced in the U.S., because the potato chip industry prefers sunflower oil to the partially hydrogenated oils that their customers believe are healthier. Dan Charles’ story on NPR traces some of this history.

Places to Visit

UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.

Cahokia‘s just one of almost a thousand sites around the world that UNESCO considers to form, “part of the cultural and natural heritage” of the world that has “outstanding universal value.”

Bam, Iran. Image by Benutzer:The 194.231.230.60 via Wikipedia.

It’s a remarkable selection of places, from natural geological wonders like the Grand Canyon, to biological preserves like Peru’s Manú National Park, to cultural landscapes like that of Bam, Iran.

The long, detailed descriptions of the importance of these sites makes the World Heritage List website is a remarkable resource for cultural and physical geography.

Cahokia Mounds

Students observe the physical and human geography of the Mississippi flood plain from the top of the main mound at Cahokia. An ox-bow lake can be seen to on the right side of the picture, and behind it is a glimpse of the Mississippi River with St. Louis in the distance.

Almost a thousand years ago, 20,000 people lived at a place called Cahokia. At the center of their city, was the largest artificial mound in North America. A large part of Cahokia’s success is surely its location: near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers — just across the Mississippi from modern-day St. Louis. Yet less than 400 years later (see timeline) the city was abandoned, and no one is quite sure what happened.

Our middle and high school took a trip out to Cahokia last month. It was during the same intercession between quarters when we visited the Laumeier Sculpture Park, the Da Vinci Exhibition, and did our brief biological survey of the campus.

The elevation of the main mound, sitting on the flat Mississippi flood plain, with the St. Louis skyline in the distance, was a great place to talk about the importance of physical geography in the location of cities (your biggest cities are always going to be on rivers, or the ocean or, often, both) and to reflect on how history repeats itself — a once thriving metropolis is nothing now but displaced piles of alluvium and mystery.


View Cahokia in a larger map

Cahokia is a World Heritage Site, and it has an excellent museum. I particularly liked the detail in their life-sized reconstruction of a section of the city.

Their website is also good. Apart from the timeline, mentioned above, they have a nice interactive map for details about each of the numerous mounds, and a long page about the archeology.

The site is pretty big, so you can spend a fair amount of time exploring. Fall, when the leaves have turned color, and the air has cooled a little, is an excellent time to visit.

Students explore the trails at Cahokia.

Morning Fog

Early morning fog over the lake.

There’s a place on the road to school where you crest a little rise and the St. Albans golf course opens up before you. “Zen-like,” I’ve heard it described. On one lovely fall morning last week the view was absolutely ridiculous. I had to stop.

Resisting the coming winter, warmer air from down south just pushed over the hills overnight, trapping the cooler air in the valley, creating a thermal inversion that trapped a layer of fog just below the tops of the hills. Small tendrils of mist were rising off lake in the bottom of the valley, feeding the fog layer as the cooler valley air condensed the water vapor evaporating off the still warm lake.

Combine the fog, mists, early morning sunlight just beginning to reach into the valley, and the brilliant fall colors contrasting against the still-green lawns, and the result was absolutely amazing.

Not being able to leave well enough alone, I've also put together this "3d" gif. It does show the fog on the lake nicely though.

Zipline to School

Nine year old Daisy Mora takes the zipline to school every day. Her five year old brother is in the bag. Image by Christoph Otto via the Daily Mail.

Photographer Christoph Otto has a few utterly amazing photographs of the kids of Rio Negro in Columbia, who have to take a zipline to get across the valley to school.

This video gives more details.

It might also be useful if students need some incentive to try the zipline at the challenge course.