Reclaiming the Red-Crowned Crane as Chinese: Ecological Modernization and Environmental Protection in China’s Long 1970s

Kyuhyun Han, University of Rhode Island

In 1979, China promulgated its first Environmental Protection Law as part of the Four Modernizations. Between 1979 and 1988, the Chinese government promoted a series of environmental protection laws, including the Marine Environment Protection Law (1984) and the Wildlife Protection Law (1988). These new laws unified previously fragmented conservation measures under the term “environmental protection” (huanjing baohu), replacing the Maoist-era term “nature protection” (ziran baohu), which had prevailed from the late 1950s to the 1960s in government documents and scientific discourse. By investigating discussions surrounding environmental protection across the 1978 divide, this paper provides insights into China’s ecological modernity during the long 1970s, focusing on the conservation of one key species in Northeast China: the red-crowned crane. Red-crowned cranes, which had received little attention from local cadres in the 1960s, became a primary focus of environmental protection policies and a marker of modernization in the early reform era. Conservation efforts directed toward these birds were exemplified by the construction of nature reserves between 1979 and 1985—the first state-led efforts to protect this endangered species. By historicizing red-crowned crane conservation, this chapter suggests that analyzing the long 1970s, rather than seeing 1978 as a rupture, better captures the shifts that determined the fate of species like the red-crowned crane in the final years of the Cultural Revolution. By examining the rise of environmental protection discourse in the long 1970s, this paper explores how ecological modernization connected socialist conservation policies with post-socialist discussions. By situating environmental protection within the context of the long 1970s, this paper contributes to broader discussions on environmental modernity in China and the intersections of politics, conservation science, and ecology. Ultimately, it aims to reveal the complexities of China’s environmental modernization during the transition from socialism to capitalism.

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 Presented in Session 79. Historical Social Sciences and China (II): Socialism, Capitalism, and Transitions in Between