Home >
Date(s)： 2026/08/11
Time： 10:00~12:00
Venue： Archives 3rd Conference Hall
Host： Prof. Wu Jen-shu (Research fellow and Deputy Director, IMH, AS)
Speaker：Prof. Tomoko Shiroyama （東京大學大學院經濟學研究所教授）
Organizer： Urban History Research Group
Abstract: In 1931, an unprecedented flood devastated the Yangzi River basin. The National Flood Relief Commission estimated that approximately 169,000 square kilometers were inundated, with another 12,500 square kilometers less severely affected. Around 140,000 people drowned, while many more died from disease, famine, and other flood-related causes. Nearly 40 percent of the population in the affected regions was displaced, and much of the summer and autumn harvest was destroyed. The disaster remains one of the most catastrophic floods in modern Chinese history. Yet its enormous human toll cannot be explained by rainfall and river levels alone. A natural hazard becomes a humanitarian catastrophe when it overwhelms flood-control infrastructure and exposes the limits of prevailing social, technological, and financial arrangements. This talk examines the dynamic interactions among rainfall, river systems, infrastructure, and human activity during the 1931 flood. Drawing on contemporary observations of precipitation and river flows, it first assesses the meteorological and hydrological extremes. It then traces how communities across the watershed responded, both sequentially and collectively, as the disaster unfolded. By bringing environmental processes and social responses into a single analysis, the talk illuminates broader questions of local governance, infrastructure management, and the protection of human welfare in times of environmental crisis.