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Conference Notes & Letters

Tsinghua University Holds Workshop on the History of Meteorology

By Xiao Liu and Wenzhe Zhang (Tsinghua University)

On April 11, 2026, the Third Workshop on the History of Meteorology was held at Tsinghua University. Hosted by the Department of the History of Science at Tsinghua University and co-organized by the International Commission on the History of Meteorology, the workshop was themed “Meteorology, Climate, and Environment: Exploring the Future Path of Research in the History of Meteorology”. It aimed to gather early-career researchers, students, and distinguished scholars to discuss and explore key developments, methodologies, and themes in the history of meteorology in China.

ICHM’s President Robert Naylor, and Vice President, Zhenghong Chen delivered welcome remarks online. While the workshop organizer, Xiao Liu (Tsinghua University), gave an introduction to the history of meteorology.

Poster in Chinese for the Third Workshop on the History of Meteorology at Tsinghua University.

The workshop opened with two keynote presentations.

The first keynote, by Associate Professor Hao Wang (Shanghai University) was a talk entitled “An Etymologic Study on the Word ‘Qixiang Xue’: Based on Western-Chinese Bilingual Dictionaries (1822–1922)”. In which, he traced the etymology of the Chinese term Qixiang Xue (meteorology), revealing the long, multi-channel circulation and negotiation of knowledge between Europe, China, and Japan. His talk was an excellent reminder of the interconnectedness of histories of science, reminding all present to always consider the history of cross-cultural contact from a global perspective.

In the second keynote, Associate Professor Zuoyan Cao (China Agricultural University) presented, “Famine Relief and the New Woman: A Study of Textile Production for Disaster Relief in the Taihang Base Areas during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression”. He argued that during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Communist Party of China promoted gender equality and women’s emancipation through productive labor. By encouraging women to participate in spinning, weaving, and farming, the regime alleviated labor shortages and mitigated famine. These practices challenged traditional norms that confined women to domestic roles and assigned them inferior social status, helping to shape “new women” for a new society.

A photograph of the attendees at the Third Workshop on the History of Meteorology at Tsinghua University.

Selected Presentations

The workshop accepted open submissions, receiving more than 60 abstracts, of which 11 presenters and 10 papers were selected for presentation. Each selected paper was assigned a designated discussant.

  1. PhD Candidate, Jiaqi Wang (Yale University) presented “The Sky as the Earth’s Face: ‘Earthquake Clouds’ and China’s Universalist Environmental Outlook, 1966–1988”. As a discussant, postgraduate student Xiaoping Xue (Columbia University) commended the study for its sharp problem awareness, particularly its dialogue with the historiography of mass science and focus on earthquake rumors and social panic. She also raised questions about the specificity of seismology in this era and what the case reveals about the interplay among knowledge production, governance, and environmental perception in Mao?era China.
  2. PhD Candidate, Pengshan Tang (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) presented “Imagining ‘Shi qi (Dampness)’: Discourse, Culture, and the Body in 20th Century and Contemporary Chinese Contexts”. This study explored the emergence, transformation, and contemporary circulation of ‘shi qi’ as a bodily discourse in Chinese society. Discussant, PhD Candidate Qing Guo (Nankai University) commented that the paper illuminated the status of traditional environmental knowledge in modern China. He cautioned against the “curse of theory,” urging that grounded, lived experience should not be reduced to the footnotes of grand theories. He also emphasized that deepening the analysis of the online examples will be critical to strengthening the study’s scholarly impact.
  3. Postgraduate student, Qijia Shen (Renmin University of China) presented “Storms in the Far East: Knowledge, Power and Nationalism in Modern China’s Weather Forecasting, 1873–1937”. In which, she argued that the establishment and evolution of China’s modern weather?forecasting system between 1873 and 1937 was intertwined with the popularization of scientific knowledge, great?power competition for meteorological hegemony, the rise of Chinese national consciousness, and local scholars’ efforts to reclaim meteorological sovereignty.
  4. Associate Professor, Xi Liu (Xi’an Jiaotong?Liverpool University) presented a co?authored paper titled, “Realist Concerns and Narrative Types in Contemporary Chinese Climate Fiction”. In which, she outlined three representative themes of climate change in Chinese cli?fi narratives: flooding, cooling, and warming. Discussant Associate Research Fellow, Yanli Chu (Beijing Meteorological Society) observed that by constructing extreme fictional scenarios, cli?fi allows readers to rehearse crises from a safe distance, prompting reflection on collective action, just transition, and ecological civilization. It is not merely a cautionary tale but an experimental space for exploring how humanity can transcend divisions and pursue resilient coexistence.
  5. PhD Candidate, Xiaoyi Hang (Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences; Beijing University of Chinese Medicine) presented “Multi?Scale Impacts of Historical Climate Change on Infectious Diseases from the Holistic Perspective of ‘Correspondence between Heaven and Human’”. He argued that historical epidemic outbreaks in China were not caused by isolated environmental hazards but by cascading interactions between climatic anomalies (e.g., extreme cold and drought) and vulnerabilities in social systems, with famine serving as a critical amplifying factor.
  6. Postdoctoral Fellow, Wei Liu (Fudan University) presented, “Reconstruction and Mechanism of the Compound Extreme Precipitation Event in Northern China in 1654”. She concluded that: 1. The event combined persistent rainfall and short?duration extreme downpours, showing intra?seasonal superposition of distinct precipitation types. 2. Under a double La Niña and strong East Asian summer monsoon, remote typhoon activity contributed to moisture transport, analogous to the extreme July 2021 rainfall in Henan. Discussant, Lecturer, Zhilong Fang (Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology) noted that comparing the 1654 event with the 2012 extreme rainstorm in Beijing is highly illuminating. Given climatic differences in North China during the late Ming and early Qing, he suggested a systematic comparison between the 1654 event and other representative extreme precipitation episodes of that period to more fully uncover patterns and driving mechanisms.
  7. PhD Candidate, Hongbo Hao (Beijing Normal University) presented “A Study of Agricultural Meteorological Divination in the Han and Tang Dynasties: From Qin–Han Bamboo and Wooden Slips to Essentials of the Four Seasons”. His research focuses on the timing and subjects of agricultural meteorological divination in the Han–Tang period. It further links the divinatory logic of wind, clouds, qi, and rain to the theories of yin–yang, five phases, and Eight Trigrams (guaqi), aiming to reconstruct how meteorological divination shaped agricultural practice in the Han–Tang era. Discussant, Lecturer, Hongjun Liu (Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, CAS) commented that the reporter had a solid grasp of historical sources on agricultural meteorological prognostication during the Han and Tang dynasties, with reasonable categorization and a fair degree of persuasiveness. One suggestion was to avoid linear, single-narrative interpretations when analyzing texts from different sources, such as divination books, agricultural treatises, and official histories.
  8. Postdoctoral Researcher, Ziang Dong (Hokkaido University) presented, “A Land of Eternal Spring? Meteorological Surveys and Discursive Formation in Modern Yunnan across France, Japan, and China”. This study examines the construction of climatic perceptions of modern Yunnan through meteorological surveys by French, Japanese, and Chinese actors from the mid?19th Century to the 1930s. It argues that the label of Yunnan as a place of “eternal spring” is not a neutral climatic description, but a discourse produced via scientific measurement, print media, and affective politics. Situating these processes within the global expansion of modern science, the paper showed how French, Japanese, and Chinese actors competed over meteorological narratives, shaping modern climatic imaginaries of Yunnan. Discussant, Lecturer, Zhenwu Qiu (Nanjing Normal University) offered three suggestions: 1. The concept of zhangli (miasma?related illness) as a socially constructed climatic idea should be contextualized within the long?term historical interactions between Han Chinese and ethnic minority groups in premodern China. 2. Analysis of how France, Japan, and China produced knowledge of Yunnan as featuring “eternal spring” should address cross?national intersections and knowledge exchanges. 3. The trope of Yunnan’s “perpetual spring” persists today; while seemingly complimentary, it obscures the region’s climatic diversity.
  9. PhD Candidates, Liying Chen (Jilin University) and Shanglin Liu (University of Manchester) jointly presented, “Observing Celestial Phenomena to Survey Local Lands: Meteorological Observation, Agricultural Experiments of the South Manchuria Railway Company and Japanese Colonialism”. In which, they argued that the South Manchuria Railway Company established numerous agricultural experiment stations across Northeast China to conduct agricultural trials and agro?meteorological observations. These practices embodied the colonial logic of Japan’s long?term rule over Northeast China. Discussant, Dr. Qian Chen (Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine) suggested that research on agro?meteorological observatories run by the South Manchuria Railway should analyze crop impacts on socioeconomic development to clarify their role in early 20th?century agricultural production.
  10. Postgraduate student, Jinfeng Liao (Shanghai Normal University) presented the research paper titled “The Seizure and Utilization of Japan‘s Military Meteorological Intelligence in China during the War of Resistance against Japan”. This paper pointed out that existing research has largely overlooked several core issues: how meteorological factors influenced Japanese military operations, how Japan acquired military meteorological intelligence on China, and how the Japanese military applied such intelligence during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Following all presentations, the workshop concluded with a roundtable discussion that brought together all presenters and discussants for collective dialogue.

Professor Gang Fu (Ocean University of China), who is also the deputy Director-General of the Professional Committee of Meteorological Science and Technology History, emphasized that disciplinary development depends on precise conceptualization. Although modern meteorology has a century-long history, it was once not fully recognized as a formal discipline due to ambiguous core concepts, highlighting the essential role of clear definitions. He also noted that the integration of artificial intelligence and human expertise is pivotal: advanced AI tools have overcome language barriers in accessing foreign literature, creating improved conditions for research. He recommended incorporating the history of meteorology into atmospheric science curricula through dedicated courses. In summary, the history of meteorology carries great academic significance, and contemporary meteorological research will inevitably become the disciplinary history of the future.

Senior Engineer (Professor Level) Gaizhen Zhang (China Meteorological Administration Training Center), who is also the Secretary-General of the Committee on the History of Meteorological Science and Technology at the Chinese Society for the History of Science, observed that research themes and methodologies at both the Seventh National Symposium on the History of Meteorological Science and Technology (hosted by the China Meteorological Administration) and this workshop reflect the current state and future trends of meteorological history research in China, including colonialism, global history, and knowledge production and circulation. She called for stronger collaboration between meteorological historians and natural sciences researchers, as well as among scholars in history, cultural studies, philosophy, and other humanities and social science fields. She argued that by combining strengths in scientific accuracy, archival research, and theoretical reflection, the field can produce higher-quality scholarship. The committee pledged to provide robust support for members and researchers nationwide.

Associate Professor, Beibei Li (Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology) commented that the Tsinghua Workshop on the History of Meteorology has become a leading academic forum, offering an invaluable platform for rigorous peer review and scholarly dialogue. It is well-positioned to serve as a cornerstone for continued innovation and advancement in this dynamic field.

Regarding the function and role of research on the history of meteorology, Wang Bangzhong, who retired from the Department of China Meteorological Administration, responded to the question raised by the media for workshop. He said that looking both back into the past and ahead into the future will help the scientific and technical payoffs in terms of meteorological understanding contribute to improvements in the lives of the public. To close, workshop organizer, Xiao Liu delivered a concluding remark, thanking all presenters and reviewers for their participation. He called on researchers in the history of meteorology to further strengthen cooperation and academic exchange.

Categories
Notes & Letters

Introducing “Connecting Oceanic Asia: Production and Application of Meteorological Knowledge”

Gutzlaff Signal Tower at the Zikawei Observatory in Shanghai

A new special issue of the History of Meteorology

By Xiao Liu and Xiaoping Xue (Tsinghua University)

When reflecting on Asia’s past, our attention often turns to land-based empires, national boundaries, or dynastic politics. Yet the oceans that surround and connect the region—the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Western Pacific—have long been crucial spaces of exchange, mobility, and contestation. These maritime worlds were also environments of uncertainty, shaped by storms, shifting monsoons, and changing seasonal cycles. To navigate, exploit, and govern these waters, states, empires, and local communities alike relied on meteorological knowledge.

This is the starting point of our special issue, Connecting Oceanic Asia: Production and Application of Meteorological Knowledge, which invites us to reflect on how weather observation, forecasting, and scientific infrastructures were central to the making of modern Asia. Meteorological knowledge in Asia was rarely produced in isolation. It emerged through layered exchanges between indigenous traditions of weather lore, colonial and imperial science, and global networks of information sharing.

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Notes & Letters Publications

Writing “Imperial Weather: Meteorology, Science, and the Environment in Colonial Malaya.”

By Fiona Williamson, ICHM Co-President and Singapore Management University 

Over the past few years, I have been deeply engaged in the project of understanding the relationship between colonialism and the weather in British Malaya. I began this project with an interest in the nascent meteorological services in the region, from uncovering an early observatory experiment in Singapore in 1841 which was a small part of a global investigation of magnetism, to the advent of a small, but dedicated meteorological service in 1929. Across this period, it was obvious that the British government were not keen to invest resources into meteorology, as they had in some of their other Asian colonies, including India and Hong Kong.

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Seminar

Exploring the History of Meteorology, Race, and Empire

Below is a recording from an online panel featuring several ICHM Officers and members, titled

Observing History: Panel Discussion on Current Work on the History of Meteorology, Race, and Empire

If you are having trouble accessing the embedded version above, the full video can also be found here.

This recording is from a session that took place on 17th October at the UK Met Office’s annual OpMet Conference 2024, which was organised by the Met Office’s EM-Power network, it’s Minority Ethnic Network as part of its Black History Month 2024 campaign. The session features contributions from Dr Fiona Williamson (Singapore Management University and Co-President, ICHM), Dr Tom Simpson (University of Warwick) and Dr Roger Turner (Science History Institute, Philadelphia).

The EM-Power network is led by Rohan Jain and Eleanor Wong, both Senior Operational Meteorologists at RAF Odiham/JOMOC Northwood and Heathrow Airport respectively. This session forms part of an ongoing conversation between the EM-Power network and the ICHM on how histories of meteorology can inform efforts to transform practice in the present.

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Conference Notes & Letters

Crisis Critiques

Workshop Report: “Climate & the Beginning of the Crisis Decades: Climate Research & Discourse During the 1970s,” Manchester, August 30, 2024

By Robert Naylor (University of Manchester and University of Cambridge), Elliot Honeybun-Arnolda (Technical University of Munich), and Ruth Morgan (Australian National University)

Due to the generous support of the International Commission for the History of Meteorology and the British Society for the History of Science, Manchester’s Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM) was able to host a workshop exploring climate research and discourse during the crucial but often-neglected decade of the 1970s.

The 1970s have been argued to be a period of political, economic, scientific, and cultural transition. Daniel T. Rogers has described the 1970s as the beginning of an age of fracture, when the discursive, economic, and political landscape was torn apart and reformed. Eric Hobsbawm has written that the 1970s heralded “a world that lost its bearings and slid into instability and crisis.” It is during this decade that climate change narratives began to emerge into the political spotlight. As shown by scholars such as Spencer Weart and Joshua Howe, reasons for this increase in status include the rising influence of the environmentalist movement, neo-Malthusian fears of population explosion supposedly accentuated by adverse climatic effects on crop yields, and (controversially) the usefulness of climate change arguments for the nuclear power lobby during a time of energy and oil crisis.

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Online Seminar

Webinar: Sharing Scientists Stories

A Conversation with Meteorologist Biographers

We would like to draw members attention to this upcoming webinar organized by colleagues at the American Meteorological Society. Taking place via Zoom on Thursday 17th October 2024 at 19:00 ET (16:00 PT), the webinar will feature Jonathan E. Martin, Sean Potter, and Jim Fleming. More information and the registration link follows.

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Publications Resources

Two new books on the history of meteorology in China

By Zhenghong Chen

As the author of ten works on the history of meteorology in China in recent years, I would like to introduce you to two new titles.

A General History of Meteorological Science and Technology, China Meteorological Press, 2020.

The first book is A General History of Meteorological Science and Technology, consisting of two volumes, which received funding from the China National Publication Foundation and was published by the China Meteorological Press in 2020. This work may be the first general history of meteorological science and technology in the world, elaborating on the development and important content of meteorological science and technology over the past five thousand years, and proposing many important academic viewpoints, which has been praised by several Chinese Academics. Although published in Chinese, many universities and libraries in China have already collected this work of over 800 pages and hundreds of images, which can also be found at the Library of Congress in the United States.

The second book, written in English, is China’s Medium and Long-Term Science and Technology Program-History and Philosophy, which was published by Springer Switzerland in 2021. This book offers an overview of modern science and technological development in China in a historical context, explains the Medium and Long-Term Science and Technology Program (MLSTP) in the People’s Republic of China, and reflects upon China’s scientific and technological development and the history of the MLSTP in order to better understanding the advancement of science and technology in China and the world.

China’s Medium and Long-Term Science and Technology Program-History and Philosophy (Springer, 2021)

Please do check out these titles and share (if relevant) among your own networks.

If you have any questions about either title, please reach out directly to Professor Chen.

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Conference

Climate & the Beginning of the Crisis Decades

A one-day workshop that seeks to generate critical transdisciplinary engagement around climate research and discourse in the 1970s

Friday, 30 August 2024, 9-5pm
CHSTM Seminar Room: Simon 2.57 [maps and travel]

Organisers: Robert Naylor, Elliot Honeybun-Arnolda, Ruth Morgan

Please register here to attend in person
Please register here to attend online

Open to a range of disciplinary backgrounds, this workshop concerns the resonances of climate-based narratives and the growth of climate research during the long decade of the 1970s. The 1970s have been acknowledged as a period of political, economic, scientific, and cultural transition. Daniel T. Rogers has described the 1970s as the beginning of an age of fracture, when the discursive, economic, and political landscape was torn apart and reformed. Eric Hobsbawm has written that the decade heralded “a world that lost its bearings and slid into instability and crisis.” It is during this time of crisis that climate change narratives began to emerge into the political spotlight. As shown by scholars such as Spencer Weart and Joshua Howe, reasons for this increase in status include, as a few examples, the rising influence of the environmentalist movement, neo-Malthusian fears of population explosion supposedly accentuated by adverse climatic effects on crop yields, and (controversially) the usefulness of climate change arguments for the nuclear power lobby during a time of energy and oil crisis.

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Conference Opportunities

Insular weathers, global atmospheres: Exploring the aerial histories of islands

Atmospheric Humanities Conference II

1-3 November 2024

Historical and Popular Art Museum of Aegina, Greece

Small island countries in the Caribbean and the Pacific and Indian Ocean have always been exposed to extreme weather, but the last decades have made it clear that they are also the biggest future victims of climate change. However, islands are also key sites in the history of science. Much weather and climate knowledge derives from island sites. When European and North American countries started launching weather balloons around 1900 to measure the upper atmosphere, next to ships, islands formed key launching sites. Islands were ideal places to measure the interaction of the global atmosphere, the land and the ocean. The Keeling curve was the result of decades of accurate and continuous measurements at Mauna Loa observatory on Hawaii. Moreover, islands have also became important meteorological metaphors: think about ‘heat islands’ in urban cities, where microclimates create islands where before there were none.

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Categories
Notes & Letters

The 6th Conference on the History of Chinese Meteorological Science and Technology

Nanjing City, China, 20-23 October 2023

By Zhenghong Chen, ICHM Vice-President and China Regional Representative

The 6th Conference on the History of Chinese Meteorological Science and Technology was successfully held in Nanjing City, China in October 2023. This conference was organized by Professor Zhenghong Chen, Vice-President of ICHM and Regional Representative of China, and co-hosted by the China Meteorological Administration Training Centre (CMATC), the Committee for the History of China Meteorological Science and Technology, and Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST). Under the background of addressing global climate change, the theme of the conference was “Research on Meteorological History and Communication of Meteorological Culture.” The conference promoted the dissemination of the history of meteorological technology and culture in Chinese universities and across diverse disciplines.

Group photo of conference participants

Professor Li Beiqun, President of NUIST, Professor Sun Xiaochun, President of the Chinese Society for the History of Science and Technology, Professor Xu Xiaofeng, Former Deputy Administrator of China Meteorological Administration, and President of the China Meteorological Service Association, Professor Yu Yubin, President of the CMATC, and Professor Zhenghong Chen, as Vice-President and China Regional Representative of ICHM, opened the conference.

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