GSSC Seminar Series
24 September 2024
Historic Mines in Highland Southwest China and Southeast Asia: A Field-Based Approach
Nanny Kim (University of Cologne)
12:00-13:00
The exploitation of metal resources has played an important role in transformations in the mountain zone of southwest China and Southeast Asia. All cultures in this multi-ethnic region practiced mining and metallurgy. While the technological complex has a history of over three millennia, large-scale mining was a Chinese activity that is recorded from the 14th century, expanded through the early modern period and became dominant in the 18th century. This talk presents research questions and methodologies employed in this project on Chinese mines in the context of networks of migration and trade.
Nanny Kim is a China historian interested in mines and networks in the mountain zone of southwest China and Southeast Asia. She employs a fieldwork-based approach that combines traditional historical records with oral histories and remains and uses methodologies of history, geography and ethnology. Research that mainly focused on silver mining in Yunnan was made possible by two DFG projects in collaboration with Yang Yuda (Fudan University) and other colleagues in China and Vietnam (2015-2018 and 2019-2022) and a membership with the Institute for Advanced Study (2023-2024). Her project at GSSC aims at realizing a systematic integration of networks of mobility and case studies on transformations of mining communities during and after mineral exploitation.