The school held a donation ceremony for "China Land Utilization"

Release time: 2023-10-24

Article source: Office

Article author: Gao Jun

On the afternoon of October 23, the donation ceremony for "Land Use in China" was held in our school. Alumni Chen Minglang and Zhang Zhuying, Vice President Dong Weichun, former Vice Presidents Hu Feng and Sun Jian, and former Archives Director Jing Guiying attended the donation ceremony. The meeting was chaired by Guo Zhongxing, Director of the Library.

Mr. Chen Minglang is an alumnus of Nanjing Agricultural University with a master's degree in animal genetics and breeding in 1981. The second volume (atlas) and the third volume (statistics) of the Chinese and English editions of "Land Use in China" donated by Oxford University Press this time are not only scientific research results, but also a precious historical document, which fill our The school collection is blank.

Dong Weichun expressed his gratitude to Chen Minglang and his wife, and introduced the background of the publication of "Land Use in China". According to reports, the author of the book, Mr. Bu Kai, founded the first Department of Agricultural Economics in a Chinese university at Jinling University in 1921. From 1928 to 1937, he led the Department of Agricultural Economics of Jin University to conduct a large-scale land use survey in 22 provinces and 168 regions in China, and formed the research result "Land Use in China". This book, together with "Chinese Farm Economy" and "Chinese Farm Management", is known as China's "Trilogy of Agricultural Economics" and has become an important reference for Westerners to understand China's agricultural economy.

So far, our school has collected Bu Kai's original "Trilogy of Agricultural Economics". In 1915, Buck's wife Pearl Buck wrote the novel "The Good Earth" about rural China based on the materials she collected while conducting household surveys with her husband at that time, and became the first Nobel Prize for Literature from China. This couple pioneered the large-scale survey of Chinese agricultural economics in rural areas, and wrote a legendary story of "the integration of university and land".

Xu Zhigang, dean of the School of Economics and Management, said that "Chinese Farm Economy" and "China Land Utilization" are one of the important windows for the academic community to understand the agriculture and rural areas of the Republic of China. Fifteen years ago, the School of Economics and Management based on some of the chapters in the book "China Land Utilization" The intermediate tables of the original survey data have been restored and sorted out. So far, 13 volumes of "Bu Kai Farmer Survey Data Compilation 1929-1933" for Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong have been published, filling the gaps in statistics in the 1930s and also providing a reference to the statistics of the 1930s. The best inheritance and tribute of this book.

Sun Jian said that as a long-time friend of Chen Minglang and his wife, he witnessed their sincere affection for taking the initiative to care about the development of the school even though they have lived in New Zealand for many years.

Mr. Chen Minglang said that when he first discovered that "Land Utilization in China" had been auctioned, and after understanding the book's important value, he communicated with the school teachers many times and said that he bought it to donate to his alma mater in the future. At the beginning of March this year, the school visited New Zealand and brought these two heavy books back to Nanjing.

At the donation ceremony, Hu Feng issued a donation certificate to Chen Minglang and his wife, and Dong Weichun, on behalf of the school, donated three volumes of "The Development History of Nanjing Agricultural University" in return.

Library (Cultural Heritage Department), Office of International Cooperation and Exchange (Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Office), School of International Education (Michigan College), Alumni Association Office (Education Foundation Office), School of Animal Science and Technology, School of Economics and Management, School of Finance, Responsible comrades from the School of Public Administration, School of Humanities and Social Development and other relevant departments attended the ceremony.

(Author: Gao Jun Proofreading: Li Xinquan Review: Wang Chunwei)