For Better Silk : Sericulture Reform in Sichuan, 1901-1945

Abstract

This work examines the involvement of various groups and individuals in the technological development of sericulture in Sichuan between 1901 and 1945. These groups and individuals hailed from different socioeconomic, political, and ideological backgrounds, and adopted divergent strategies towards sericulture. These pluralistic pursuits for better silk eventually converged into a single trajectory - the modernization of sericulture controlled and managed by the Chinese government and their professional sericulturists. In examining the technological development of sericulture in modern Sichuan, this work addresses two topics related to technology. First, it suggests that during the early period when pre-modern regions had just been exposed to modernizing forces, technological development was both disruptive and incremental. Creative and revolutionary foreign technology and techniques were introduced into Sichuan even as indigenous methods and devices were being improved steadily. Second, it reveals that technological development did not simply cause the deskilling of rural producers by rendering their traditional skills and techniques obsolete, but also required them to be re-skilled in the new forms of knowledge and techniques.