Entire Volume 17 issue 1 - Journal of World-Systems Research ...

259 JOURNAL OF WORLD-SYSTEMS RESEARCH
Yang, Bin. 2009. Between Winds and Clouds: The Making of Yunnan Second Century BCE to
Twentieth Century CE. New York: Columbia University Press. 338 Pages, ISBN
9780231142540 Cloth ($60.00), ISBN 9780231512305 Gutenberg-e, http://www.gutenberge.org/yang/index.html,
copyright 2008 on this version.
The fundamental argument of Between Winds and Clouds is that two over millennia of the history
of Yunnan and most of Southwest China cannot be understood solely from a Chinese perspective.
Nor is it solely a matter of a history of how China incorporated and changed Yunnan. Rather, this
history must be understood in a global perspective. Furthermore Yunnan had significant impacts
of the development of China, especially its multicultural qualities. Yang further argues that
world-system analyses of incorporation are very useful in understanding this history, and notes in
several places where the history of the incorporation of Yunnan can add to continuing
development of world-systems analysis. This is a complex, yet subtle and nuanced argument,
developed over seven substantive chapters. For readers coming from comparative political
economy it is useful to note that the style of discourse is that of world history which draws on a
large number of primary sources. For those who can read Chinese there is a glossary of
romanized terms.
The introductory chapter summarizes the key arguments and gives a general background
on the region. Yunnan is an ethnocentric Chinese construct which means approximately the land
south of the clouds. The region had at least 25 different ethnic groups which outnumbered Han
Chinese immigrants until just a few centuries ago. Yunnan’s external connections to Southeast
Asia – often known as the lands below the winds – were often as strong as or stronger than its
connection to China. Hence, the book’s title and a major reason why the region must be studied
comparatively as part of a larger world-system.
Yang argues, “Studying how frontiers became peripheral areas in the first place will shed
light on the theoretical development of world-system perspectives” (Ch. 1, para 54; p. 15 cloth).
Indeed, one can read the entire book as an elaborate exploration of this argument. For traditional
scholars of Chinese history an equally important thesis is that no part of China can be studied in
isolation – either from the rest of China, or the rest of the world. Because Yunnan had such
connections for over two millennia many nuances of creation and modification of a frontier can
be examined. An important point is that Yunnan connected to what we now know as Tibet, India,
and Southeast Asia via a Southern Silk Road which complemented and supplemented the
northern overland Silk Road and the more southerly maritime Silk Road.
The second chapter focuses on the history of the Southern Silk Road. Ironically, silk was
not a major trade item along the Southern Silk Road. Goods moved from Yunnan in all directions,
thus Yunnan was a major source of information to China about Southeast Asia, especially what
we know today as Burma (aka Myanmar). Two products in particular proved very valuable to
China: horses and copper. Yunnan is mountainous and highly varied region, one source of its
ethnic diversity. It has extensive mineral resources. Because of the altitude of much of the region
it was relatively easy to breed horses. Thus, it became an alternative to the northern steppe
pastoralists as a source of horses. This capacity was very valuable to China proper which could
not breed horses in large numbers due to climatic conditions. The region was finally brought into
the Chinese fold via the Mongol conquests in the thirteenth century.
The following chapter examines the many military encounters between Yunnan, or its
sub-regions and outsiders, primarily China. Until its conquest, ironically by the Mongols, various