China Ports: History, Heritage & Development

According to the World Shipping Council, 7 of the world's 10 busiest container ports are now located in China. With the exception of the capital Beijing, almost all of China's largest cities are coastal or inland ports. Despite government attempts to lessen economic disparity between the seaboard and the hinterland, it is the ports of China's east and southeast which remain the centres of wealth in what is soon to be the world's largest economy. These economic and political developments have buoyed scholarly interest in the development of port cities in China and the growth in the marine economy. In various fields of engineering, for example, the new opportunities presented by such growth have opened up a range of new realms of research. The University of Nottingham has been at the forefront of such trends, with its International Academy for Marine Economy and Technology (IAMET), located on Nottingham's China campus in the city of Ningbo, seeking to train a new generation of engineers and managers for China's shipping and port-related industries.

China's maritime, coastal and port history also represent key areas of enquiry in the Humanities. Scholarship on the history and legacy of China's treaty ports, in particular, has become a major subfield in modern Chinese history. Other research has covered the material history of maritime and port China, as well as the 'maritime silk road'; the spatial and topographic configurations of China's coastal cities; underwater cultural heritage in China; and the cultural legacies of China's ports in the long history of immigration, transport and trade.

To date, however, there has been relatively little engagement between those who work on this cultural, material and social history of maritime China, and those who study (or directly work with) the physical and economic features of China's ports today. This is perhaps surprising, as the recent development of China's marine sector and the rapid growth of its port cities all reflect specific historical legacies, while the protection and celebration of China's maritime heritage has emerged as an important task in most of China's port cities, as witnessed in the opening throughout China of port and/or maritime museums (a number of which are represented in this network).

This network aims to remedy this gap by bringing together, under the for Cross-Disciplinary Research Networks Highlight Notice, a community of scholars and practitioners who share an interest in China's port cities and marine economy, but who rarely have the opportunity to learn from one another or engage in any form of dialogue. It will include: (i) Humanities scholars (in history, archaeology, Sinology, art history) who work on the cultural, economic, material, social and spatial history of maritime and coastal China; (ii) social scientists who work on China's urban and maritime development, as well as related fields such as shipping and logistics; (iii) engineers currently working in areas related to China's marine economy and urban and/or port environment (such as in geospatial engineering, SAR geocoding, engineering surveying, architectural engineering, and port and harbour construction); and (iv) museum practitioners engaged in the preservation and presentation of China's maritime past.

These scholars and practitioners will take part in 3 international workshops. The first of these will be held at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, the second at the Port Museum of China in Ningbo, and the third on the University of Nottingham's UK campus. Through these events, the network will facilitate a sustainable dialogue across disciplinary and sectoral boundaries, and establish lasting Sino-British collaboration in a new field which might be referred to as 'China port studies'. These developments will benefit a range of disciplines in both the UK and China, and will give rise to a range of cross-disciplinary collaborative projects in the years to come.

The network will broadly benefit users and beneficiaries in specific sectors in China and the UK.

The first of these is the museums sector and cultural industries sector in China. The network itself includes representatives from major maritime museums in China, such as the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, the China Port Museum and the National Underwater Cultural Heritage Preservation Centre in Wuhan, and their involvement in the network will have tangible impact on curatorial practices, the management of the visitor experience, the conservation and preservation of collections and historic sites, the relationship between maritime/port museums and maritime industries, and the design and production of exhibit-related literature. In addition to these, the network's activities (specifically the 3 workshops) will involve other practitioners from this field as appropriate (including, but not limited to, network members' institutional contacts in the museums sector, including key institutions in the UK such as the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and the British Library).

Two other major sets of beneficiaries from the network will be local government and the maritime industries - in both China and the UK. The specific ways in which the network will impact upon the work of these two sets of beneficiaries include providing information and ideas to support policy formulation (e.g., on the preservation of maritime sites; the design and development of port infrastructure; and the growth of the marine economy and maritime industries); and providing access to new ideas, technologies and methods relevant to government, the marine economy and maritime industries. On this point, it should be noted that a number of network members are involved in other existing projects which claim strong links with private industry, particularly in the marine economy, thus enhancing the opportunities for such impact. These include Nottingham's International Academy for Marine Economy and Technology, which has close relations to private industry in the Port of Ningbo, as well as with the Zhejiang Provincial Government; and the China Maritime Centre at Greenwich University, which has strong ties to the shipping industry in the UK and China. In order to ensure that the research undertaken by network members is directly shared with government and industry, at least 3 slots at all 3 workshops will be set aside for representatives from local government and/or industry who are directly engaged in port-related work (in the case of the Hong Kong and Ningbo workshops, this will mean China-based beneficiaries, where as for the Nottingham workshop, it will include UK beneficiaries). This will include representatives from port authorities; shipping and logistics companies; port construction and architectural firms; or government bodies responsible for maritime heritage protection. Such delegates will be invited to actively partake in discussions at the workshops (indeed, for this purpose, a specific panel will be set aside at each workshop to encourage direct academia-government-industry dialogue).

Finally, by establishing a truly Sino-British forum, the network will also play its part in contributing to the broader relationship between China and the UK, thus benefitting society in both countries, and increasing bilateral cultural, academic and economic exchanges. At the final workshop to be held in Nottingham, representatives from the public sector in the UK (e.g., Trinity House) and industry (shipping companies, port developers) will be invited to attend for precisely this purpose, with the hope that this engagement in the network's activities might contribute to wider efforts to improve the Sino-British relationship more generally.