Art and the Pearl River Delta environment
Abstract:
History tells us that South China and the Pearl River Delta region in particular
began to suffer environmental damage about 1000 years ago when large numbers of
people migrated from north to south. The forest vegetation was removed for a variety of
reasons: to provide firewood, building materials, and to make charcoal; to clear land for
farming and settlements; to provide safety from fire, wild animals, snakes, and bandits.
Much of the land in the Pearl River Delta region is still in a damaged and degraded state.
Western and Chinese artists who frequented the Pearl River Delta region
recorded the damage in paintings and drawings. In addition, land and vegetation damage
is shown in some early photographs taken in China.
Until about 1750, Chinese art lacked perspective. The local Chinese artists
learned to draw using the perspective technique from foreign artists and then began to
incorporate the technique in their works. Even though the Western and Chinese artists
probably were not trained in geology/geomorphology, they demonstrated keen
observations in their art works related to the nature of the land surface. The Western and
Chinese artists show that the land was largely deforested and badly eroded 200 years ago.
Historical art depicting the Pearl River Delta region can be used in geological and
geomorphological applications, such as to determine the type of local bedrock, determine
the intensity of rock weathering, and to assess the status of soil erosion.
This study finds that
• much of the artwork produced by Western and Chinese artists about150-200 years
ago shows that they accurately represented the Chinese landscape,
• the land and the wildlife habitats were already severely damaged in the 1700s and
1800s,
• geological information inadvertently recorded in historic art matches current
geological knowledge.
Considerable agreement exists among historical art works produced by different
artists over 200 years regarding the condition of the environment of the Pearl River Delta
region. It is unlikely that there were extensive, undamaged wildlife habitats that
remained in this region at this time. Using art to determine the condition of the land and
vegetation in the Pearl River Delta region 200 years ago may provide some difficulties.
However, it may be even more difficult to determine the condition of the Pearl River
Delta region in just 15 years when an estimated additional 70 million people move into
the area.
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