¹ Kong Xiangxi, ‘Cheng guan kaifa xibei chubu sheshi caoan’ [Submission on preliminary steps for the development of the Northwest], 9 November 1942, Academia Historica, Taipei (hereafter AH), 001000006781A (1609).

² Lin, Hsiao-ting, Modern China's Ethnic Frontiers: A Journey to the West (New York: Routledge, 2011), pp. 38Google Scholar, 41, 58.

³ Rodriguez, Andres, ‘Building the Nation, Serving the Frontier: Mobilizing and Reconstructing China's Borderlands during the War of Resistance’, Modern Asian Studies 45, 2 (2011), pp. 345–376CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴ Kinzley, Judd C., ‘Crisis and the Development of China's Southwestern Periphery: The Transformation of Panzhihua, 1936–1969’, Modern China 38, 5 (2012), pp. 559–584CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵ Haiyan, Wang and Nima, Xirao, ‘Kangzhan shiqi guomin zhengfu yu Xizang Rezhen shezheng de guanxi’ [The Nationalist government and the Reting Rinpoche regency in Tibet during the War of Resistance], Yunnan minzu daxue xuebao 1 (2008), pp. 103–108Google Scholar; Yi, Sun, ‘Kang zhan shiqi guomin zhengfu de bianjiang jiaoyu zhengce’ [The Nationalist government's frontier education policies during the War of Resistance], Zhongguo bianjiang shidi yanjiu 4 (2005), pp. 30–36Google Scholar; Sumei, Fang, ‘Kang Ri zhanzheng shiqi yanhai yanjiang jingji xiang xibu minzu diqu de qianyi ji qi yingxiang’ [The migration of the coastal-riverine economy to the western ethnic regions during the War of Resistance], Guangxi minzu yanjiu 4 (2000), pp. 98–105Google Scholar.

⁶ Muscolino, Micah S., ‘Refugees, Land Reclamation, and Militarized Landscapes in Wartime China: Huanglongshan, Shaanxi, 1937–1945’, The Journal of Asian Studies 69, 2 (2010), pp. 453–478CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷ Ho, Peter, ‘The Myth of Desertification of China's Northwestern Frontier: The Case of Ningxia Province (1929–1958)’, Modern China 26, 3 (2000), pp. 363–364CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Keating, Pauline, Two Revolutions: Village Reconstruction and the Cooperative Movement in Northern Shaanxi, 1934–1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997)Google Scholar.

⁸ This article will use the succinct Chinese kenzhiqu rather than the more cumbersome English ‘land cultivation and settlement zone’. Ken indicates the cultivation of land, and zhi, new settlement, as in zhimindi ‘colony’ (from the Japanese shokuminchi).

⁹ Lu Hejian, ‘Kang zhan shiqi xibu nongken shiye de fazhan’ [Land cultivation in the West during the War of Resistance], Minguo dang’an no. 2 (2005), p. 90.

¹⁰ Schoppa writes that in Zhejiang ‘the refugee work relief [initiative] with the greatest long-term impact was land reclamation’; see Schoppa, R. Keith, In a Sea of Bitterness: Refugees During the Sino-Japanese War (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2011), p. 47CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Still, there is relatively little in Schoppa's book about land reclamation in Zhejiang and Fujian: if it really was the relief measure with the greatest long-term impact, more remains to be said about it.

¹¹ Lu, ‘Kang zhan shiqi xibu nongken’, p. 90.

¹² Muscolino, ‘Refugees, Land Reclamation, and Militarized Landscapes’, p. 455.

¹³ Lin, Hsiao-ting, ‘Nationalists, Muslim Warlords and the “Great Northwestern Development” in Pre-Communist China’, China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly 5, no. 1 (2007), p. 132Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Yao Guangyu, ‘San nian lai ben bu zhi xia kenqu yewu gaikuang’ [Land cultivation work of the Ministry of Agriculture in the past three years], Ken Xun [Cultivation News] no. 3 (1943), p. 11; Shen Honglie and Chen Furong, ‘Kenwu gongzuo zhi guoqu ji jianglai’ [The past and future of land cultivation work], Ken Xun no. 4 (1944), p. 1. This is discussed in more detail below.

¹⁵ Rodriguez, ‘Building the Nation’, p. 348.

¹⁶ Perdue, Peter C., China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), p. 342Google Scholar. For the Ming government's resettlement schemes, see Yuquan, Wang, Zhongri, Liu, and Xianqing, Zhang, Zhongguo jingji tongshi. Mingdai jingji juan (shang)[General History of the Chinese Economy. The Ming Dynasty I] (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue yuan, 2007), p. 254Google Scholar.

¹⁷ Millward, James A., Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), p. 115Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Cited in Zihua, Chi, ‘Jindai yimin “tiaoji” fanglüe jianlun’ [The ‘adjustment’ strategy and modern migration], Hebei daxue xuebao (zhexue shehui kexueban) 26, 1 (2001), p. 24Google Scholar.

¹⁹ On the idea of jin di li, see Perdue, Peter C., Exhausting the Earth: State and Peasant in Hunan, 1500–1800 (Cambridge Massachusetts: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University), pp. 11–12Google Scholar. In the 1900s a lot of writing referred to European, American, and Japanese settlement of new lands, though such references were usually brief. As many scholars have pointed out, Zhao Erfeng, the banner official who launched wars against Tibetan leaders in Kham in 1905, referred to Japanese Hokkaido, British India, and French Madagascar as possible models for a reconstructed Kham. Yuan Dahua, the last Qing governor of Xinjiang, also saw his province as China's Hokkaido. These references were brief, however, and neither governor's actual policy appears to have been much influenced by in-depth study of foreign imperialism. See Sperling, Elliot, ‘The Chinese Venture in K’am, 1904–1911, and the Role of Chao Erh-feng’, The Tibet Journal 1, no. 2 (1976), p. 23Google Scholar; Woodside, Alexander, ‘The Centre and the Borderlands in Chinese Political Theory’, in Lary, Diana (ed.), The Chinese State at the Borders (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007), p. 23Google Scholar.

²⁰ Yat-sen, Sun, The International Development of China (New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1922), pp. 24–25Google Scholar.

²¹ Ibid.

²² For a discussion of Ren Naiqiang's writing on Kham, see Tsomu, Yudru, ‘Taming the Khampas: The Republican Construction of Eastern Tibet’, Modern China 39, no. 3 (May 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²³ Zhongwei, Chen, Xikang wenti[The Xikang question] (Shanghai: Zhonghua shu ju, 1930), p. 310Google Scholar.

²⁴ Naiqiang, Ren, Xikang tujing: minsu pian[Xikang pictorial encyclopaedia: people and customs] (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, [1933] 1996), pp. 286–289Google Scholar.

²⁵ Youzhen, Feng, Xinjiang shicha ji [A record of an investigation of Xinjiang] in Zhongguo bianjiang shehui diaocha baogao jicheng [Survey reports from China's borderlands], Vol. 10 (Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, [1934] 2010), p. 81Google Scholar; Yannian, Du and Yujun, Sun (eds), Suiyuan shiye shichaji [A record of an investigation of industry and enterprise in Suiyuan] in Nei Menggu shi zhi [Historical gazetteers of Inner Mongolia], Vol. 36 (Beijing: Quanguo tushuguan wenxian suowei fuzhi zhongxin, [1933] 2002), pp. 1–4Google Scholar.

²⁶ Gottschang, Thomas R. and Lary, Diana, Swallows and Settlers: The Great Migration from North China to Manchuria (Ann Arbor: Centre for China Studies, University of Michigan, 2000), pp. 48–49Google Scholar; Chongzu, Chen, ‘Xinjiang chuyan’ [Views on Xinjiang, 1913], in Ding, Bian (ed.), Zhongguo bianjiang xingji diaochaji baogaoshu deng bianwu ziliao congbian[Historical travel writing, survey reports and documentary materials from China's borderlands] Vol. 4 (Hong Kong: Fuchi shuyuan, 2009), p. 369Google Scholar.

²⁷ ‘Chuanbian kaiken zhi jinzhuang’ [Recent developments in land cultivation in the Sichuan frontier], Datongbao (28 December 1910), p. 35.

²⁸ Sun, The International Development of China, p. 24.

²⁹ Chen Zhongwei, Xikang wenti, p. 99; Ren Naiqiang, Xikang tujing, p. 293.

³⁰ Renjie, Zhang, ‘Xibei jianshe jihua’ [Plan for the development of the Northwest] in Geming wenxian No. 89 [Documents from the Revolution] (Taipei: Guomindang dang shi weiyuanhui, 1981), pp. 90–91Google Scholar.

³¹ Ye Xiufeng et al., ‘Guojia ying jiji congshi kenzhi shiye’ [The nation must urgently organize settlement and land cultivation], 1935, Kuomintang Party Archives, Taipei (hereafter KMT), 5.1–6.67.

³² Tighe, Justin, Constructing Suiyuan: The Politics of Northwestern Territory and Development in Early Twentieth-Century China (Leiden: Brill, 2005), pp. 132–133Google Scholar.

³³ ‘Shishi yiken banfa dagang’ [Summary of measures for wasteland settlement and cultivation], AH, 001–111030–0001 (1039–1050).

³⁴ Zhongyang zhengzhi huiyi [Central Political Council], 1933, AH, 001–111030–0001 (0968–0977).

³⁵ Muscolino, ‘Refugees, Land Reclamation and Militarized Landscapes’, p. 469.

³⁶ Du Yannian and Sun Yujun, ‘Suiyuan shiye shichaji’ [Record of an investigation of enterprise in Suiyuan], 1933, in Neimenggu shi zhi [Historical gazetteers from Inner Mongolia], Vol. 36 (Beijing: Quanguo tushuguan wenxian suowei fuzhi zhongxin, 2002), p. 3.

³⁷ MacKinnon, Stephen R., Wuhan, 1938: War, Refugees, and the Making of Modern China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), p. 50Google Scholar; Liu, Lu, ‘A Whole Nation Walking: The “Great Retreat” in the War of Resistance, 1937–1945’, PhD thesis, University of California, San Diego, 2002, p. 252Google Scholar.

³⁸ Luo Lixue, ‘Yisong tuiwu shibing ji nanmin zhiken biangjiang huangdi’ [Sending discharged soldiers and refugees to the frontiers to cultivate wasteland, in order to increase agricultural production], 1938, KMT, te 31 24 3 54.

³⁹ Xikang jiansheng weihuihui, ‘Nanmin kenzhi jihua shu’ [Plan for refugee agricultural settlement], December 1938, AH, 014000008849A.

⁴⁰ Shen Honglie and Chen Furong, ‘Kenwu gongzuo zhi guoqu ji jianglai’, p. 1.

⁴¹ ‘Xikang kenzhi duban gongshu zuzhi guicheng, shiye jihua’, October 1940, Archive of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei (hereafter IMH), 18–21–16–020–03.

⁴² Andres Rodriguez also argues that ‘the wartime period provided an exceptional opportunity for the GMD [Nationalist] state to experiment with a series of projects that sought to further its nation-state project in the borderland regions of China’. Hence, the ‘frontier service’ missions that Rodriguez discusses were also motivated by pre-War Nationalist thinking, even if the circumstances that allowed the missions to happen arose as a result of the War. Rodriguez, ‘Building the nation’, p. 347.

⁴³ Luo Lixue, ‘Yisong tuiwu shibing ji nanmin zhiken bianjiang huangdi yi zengjia nongye shengchan an’, KMT, te 31 24 3 54.

⁴⁴ ‘Leibo xian zhengfu cheng wei shoufu xianshu shidi niju yimin zhibian jihua gangyao’, 20 December 1941, Sichuan Provincial Archives (hereafter SPA), min115–8789.

⁴⁵ Sichuan jiansheting tingzhang Hu Zi’ang, ‘Sheli tuiyi junren kenzhi shiyanqu zai Mabian Pingshan Ebian ji Songpan Lixian Maoxian, Wenchuan deng xian’ [Plans for the establishment of military cultivation and settlement experimental zones in Mabian, Pingshan, Ebian, and Songpan, Lixian, Maoxian, Wenchuan], February 1943, SPA, min115–8787.

⁴⁶ Chen argues that ‘the ongoing power struggle with the Anhui faction induced the Zhili warlords to [. . .] support the May Fourth Movement. But they also supported [. . . it] for other reasons ranging from sincere patriotism to native-place relations with Shandong.’ Zhongping, Chen, ‘The May Fourth Movement and Provincial Warlords: A Reexamination’, Modern China 37, no. 2 (2011), p. 151Google Scholar. Hill concludes that Chen Jitang—the ‘King of the South’—‘helped to build one of China's most developed pre-socialist industrial bases’; Hill, Emily, Smokeless Sugar: The Death of a Provincial Bureaucrat and the Construction of China's National Economy (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010), p. 222Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ Leibold, James, Reconfiguring Chinese Nationalism: How the Qing Frontier and its Indigenes became Chinese (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp. 72–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁸ Lawson, Joseph, ‘Warlord Colonialism: State Fragmentation and Chinese Rule in Kham, 1911–1949’, The Journal of Asian Studies 72, no. 2 (2013), p. 301CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁹ Xikang jiansheng weihuihui, ‘Nanmin kenzhi jihua shu’, December 1938, AH, 014000008849A.

⁵⁰ Shen and Chen, ‘Kenwu gongzuo zhi guoqu ji jianglai’, p. 1.

⁵¹ Si, Wen (ed.), Wo suo zhidao de Sheng Shicai [The Sheng Shicai I knew] (Beijing: Zhongguo wenshi chubanshe, 2003), p. 57Google Scholar.

⁵² Ibid, p. 59.

⁵³ Sheng Shicai and Shen Honglie, ‘Dian chen Xinsheng duiyu yimin zhi xiwang’ [Xinjiang's hopes for migration], 30 October 1942, AH, 001000006781A (1592). In August 1942, Sheng Shicai and Zhu Shaoliang had written to Chiang Kai-shek suggesting (among other things) that 30,000–50,000 migrants could be sent to Xinjiang before the winter snow, after which the number could be made up to a million. See Jianlang, Wang, ‘Shi lun kangzhan houqi de Xinjiang neixiang: Ji yu “Jiang Jieshi riji” de zai tan tao’, Jinyang xuekan 2011, no. 1, p. 99Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ Lu, ‘Kangzhan shiqi xibu nongken’, p. 90.

⁵⁵ ‘Qieshi shixing bingmin kentun’ [Practical measures for the implementation of land cultivation], 24 December 1942, KMT, 003 2365.

⁵⁶ ‘Quanguo guo, min kenshe weifan jinling qudi fa’ [Nationwide measures for the suppression of illegal opium growing by state and private land cultivation societies], 16 June 1945, IMH, 20–26–003–10.

⁵⁷ Gao Shangzhi, ‘Guanyu baosong ducha Pingshan, Mabian deng xian jinzheng qingxing de cheng, baogao’ [Report on an investigation of opium prohibition efforts in Pingshan and Mabian counties], 5 November 1942, Chongqing Municipal Archives, 0107 0004 00375.

⁵⁸ ‘Kan cha Liping kenqu baogaoshu’ [Report of a survey of Liping kenzhiqu], 6 September 1948, Chongqing Municipal Archives, 0061–0015–01496.

⁵⁹ Qi Zhongquan, ‘Nonglin bu Dongxishan kenhuangqu rongyu junren cong ken shiyan tan’ [On experimental cultivation for honoured soldiers at the Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture's Dongxishan wasteland cultivation zone], Ken Xun no. 3 (1943), p. 15.

⁶⁰ ‘Xichang kenju, 31 nian 5–6 yuefen gongzuo yuebao yu huiyi jilu’, June 1942, IMH, 20–87e-8–3.

⁶¹ ‘Feichang shiqi nanmin yiken tiaoli’ [Emergency period regulations for refugee migration and land cultivation], Zhongyang yinhang yuebao [Bank of China Monthly] no. 8–12 (1939), pp. 1037, 1039.

⁶² ‘Xin nongcun jianshe mian an’ [Plans for the construction of new villages] in Ningxia sheng nanmin yiken shishi jihua yusuan [Ningxia Province plans and budgets for refugee migration and land cultivation], October 1939, AH, 014000008849A.

⁶³ Chunke, Wu, ‘Jieshao Meifu nanmin jiti nongchang’ [Introduction to Meifu refugee collective farm], Zhongnong yuekan [Chinese Agriculture Monthly], no. 11–12 (1946), p. 51Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ Ningxia sheng nanmin yiken shishi jihua yusuan, AH, 014000008849A.

⁶⁵ Chinese labels have been translated and positioned as they appear on the original map; instead of ‘houses’, though, the original map includes numbers 1–50, for the 50 households the village was intended for. Buildings without a label are unlabelled on the original plan.

⁶⁶ Ibid.

⁶⁷ On the rise of the danwei system during the Sino-Japanese War, see Bian, Morris L., The Making of the State Enterprise System in Modern China: The Dynamics of Institutional Change (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Of course, the Communist Party also initiated land-settlement and cultivation schemes during the War of Resistance which were also an important influence on post-1949 resettlement ventures. Zhang Zhonghan, who was a regimental commander at the famous Nanniwan land cultivation area in Shaanxi, served as both a deputy political commissar in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Army Corps, and the vice director of the Corps’ Land Cultivation Bureau (nongken bu). See Langyu, Liu, ‘Zhang Zhonghan—cong Nanniwan dao Xinjiang junken’ [Zhang Zhonghan—from Nanniwan to military land cultivation in Xinjiang], Yan huang chun qiu no. 2 (2004), pp. 58–64Google Scholar. To what extent the post-1949 land settlement programmes drew on the experience of the kenzhiqu of the pre-1949 provincial governments and the Nationalist Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture is a topic worthy of further research.

⁶⁸ Yao Guangyu, ‘San nian lai ben bu zhi xia kenqu yewu gaikuang’, p. 11; Yankui, Sun, ‘Kang Ri zhanzheng shiqi nanmin kenhuang wenti shu lue’ [Land cultivation by refugees during the Anti-Japanese War], Minguo dangan 2 (1995), p. 89Google Scholar; Muscolino, ‘Refugees, Land Reclamation, and Militarized Landscapes’, pp. 455, 465.

⁶⁹ Yao Guangyu, ‘San nian lai ben bu zhi xia kenqu yewu gaikuang’, pp. 9, 11.

⁷⁰ The report omitted numbers of people who went to kenzhiqu at Leibo (Sichuan), Funiu (Henan), and Shunchang (Fujian). The site at Leibo had already been turned over to the military bureau in charge of wounded soldiers (see below), and the other two received less funding than the others, so it is unlikely that many people went to them.

⁷¹ Zhou, ‘Kangzhan shiqi Sichuan kenzhi yundong’, p. 57.

⁷² Sheng and Shen, 1942, AH, 001000006781A (1592).

⁷³ Shen and Chen, ‘Kenwu gongzuo zhi guoqu ji jianglai’, p. 1. As we saw above, a few historians have put the number of wartime settlers to Xinjiang at around 10,000. I cannot explain this discrepancy.

⁷⁴ Zhang Bin, ‘Kangzhan shiqi Sichuan nongye daikuan tanxi—yi nongcun hezuo jinrong wei zhongxin de kaocha’ [An examination of agricultural lending in wartime Sichuan, focusing on village cooperative finance], MA thesis, Sichuan Normal University, 2011, p. 42. Yao Guangyu, ‘San nian lai ben bu zhi xia kenqu yewu gaikuang’, p. 7.

⁷⁵ ‘Kan cha Liping kenqu baogaoshu’.

⁷⁶ ‘Kan cha Liping kenqu baogaoshu’.

⁷⁷ Liu, ‘A Whole Nation Walking’, p. 288.

⁷⁸ Kirby, William C., ‘The Chinese War Economy’, in Hsiung, James C. and Levine, Steven I. (eds), China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945 (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1992), p. 186Google Scholar.

⁷⁹ Howard, Joshua H., Workers at War: Labor in China's Arsenals, 1937–1953 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), p. 169Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ Ibid, pp. 172, 175.

⁸¹ ‘Chongqing shi zhiye gongren shiji shouru’ [Real incomes of Chongqing workers], Shehui diaocha yu tongji [Social surveys and statistics] no. 3 (1943), pp. 74–75.

⁸² ‘Chongqing shi shisi ye gongren shiji shouru’ [Real incomes in 14 professions in Chongqing], Tongji yuebao [Statistics monthly] no. 75–76 (1942), p. 47.

⁸³ ‘Sichuan sheng nongmin suo de suo fu wu jia zhishu’ [Index of Sichuan farmers’ expenses and revenue], Zhong nong jingji tongji [Chinese agricultural and economic statistics] 3, no. 10 (1943).

⁸⁴ Guomin canzhenghui Chuan–Kang jianshe shichatuan baogaoshu [Report from the National Political Assembly Sichuan and Xikang Development Survey Team] (Taibei: Wenhai chubanshe youxian gongsi, 1971), p. 198.

⁸⁵ Youyi, Li, ‘Yunnan nongcun laoli de tiaoji’ [Labour–force adjustment in Yunnan], Xin jingji banyuekan no. 7 (1941), p. 35Google Scholar.

⁸⁶ Ibid, pp. 36–37.

⁸⁷ Naiqiang, Ren, ‘Lun Ningyuan qu zhi jingjian buzhou’ [Measures for the economic development of Ningyuan], Kang Zang yanjiu yuekan 1, 3 (1946), p. 4Google Scholar.

⁸⁸ Guomin canzhenghui Chuan–Kang jianshe shichatuan baogaoshu, p. 198.

⁸⁹ Li, ‘Yunnan nongcun laoli de tiaoji’, p. 35.

⁹⁰ Muscolino, ‘Refugees, Land Reclamation, and Militarized Landscapes’, p. 464.

⁹¹ Shen and Chen, ‘Kenwu gongzuo zhi guoqu ji jianglai’, p. 2.

⁹² Yao, ‘San nian lai ben bu zhi xia kenqu yewu gaikuang’, p. 8.

⁹³ ‘Nonglinbu Xikang Xichang tunken shiyan qu guanli ju bayue baogao’ [Ministry of Agriculture Xichang Experimental Cultivation Zone Administration report for August], 1942, IMH, 20–87e-8–2.

⁹⁴ ‘Nonglinbu Xikang Xichang tunken shiyanqu guanliju di sici kenwu huiyilu’ [Minutes from the fourth meeting of the Xichang Experimental Cultivation Zone Administration], 22 April 1942, IMH, 20–87e-8–2.

⁹⁵ Zhou Yunrong, ‘Kangzhan shiqi Sichuan kenzhi yundong chutan’ [The land cultivation movement in Sichuan during the Anti-Japanese War], MA thesis, Sichuan University, 2007, p. 33.

⁹⁶ Li Zhongquan, ‘Sichuan sheng Pingbei kenqu nongye gaikuang’ [General survey of Sichuan's Pingbei cultivation region], Sichuan jingji jikan [Sichuan Economy Quarterly] no. 3 (1945), p. 304.

⁹⁷ Ibid.

⁹⁸ Eastman, Lloyd E., Seeds of Destruction: Nationalist China in War and Revolution, 1937–1949 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984), p. 49Google Scholar.

⁹⁹ Kunhong, Hou, Liangzheng shiliao (Taipei: Guoshiguan, 1988), Vol. II, pp. 284–343Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁰ Zhongyang nongye shiyan suo [National Bureau of Agricultural Research], ‘Woguo ge sheng duan gong gongji’ [Supply of temporary labour by province], Zhong nong jingji tongji [Chinese agricultural economic statistics] 3, no. 10 (1943), p. 22.

¹⁰¹ Eastman, Seeds of Destruction, p. 49.

¹⁰² Buck, J. Lossing, An Agricultural Survey of Szechwan Province, China (Chungking: The Farmers Bank of China, 1943), p. 16Google Scholar.

¹⁰³ ‘Yongchuan zhongxue xuesheng qing tong ling quan Chuan zhong xiao xuesheng liqi zhugeng yi wei minshi’ [Yongchuan middle school students request that all primary and middle school students in Sichuan assist with farm-work in order to safeguard food production], IMH, 20–21–054–02.

¹⁰⁴ Qiuhuang, Liu, ‘Zhanshi Sichuan liangshi shengchan’ [Sichuan's wartime grain production], Sichuan jingji jikan 2 no. 4 (1945), pp. 144–146Google Scholar; Lu Hejian, ‘Kang zhan shiqi xibu nongken shiye’, p. 90.

¹⁰⁵ Lary, Diana, ‘One Province's Experience of War: Guangxi, 1937–1945’, in McKinnon, Stephen, Lary, Diana and Vogel, Ezra (eds), China at War. Regions of China, 1937–1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), p. 319Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁶ Buck, J. Lossing, Chinese Farm Economy (Shanghai: The University of Nanking, and Institute of Pacific Relations, 1930), p. 228Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁷ Liu, ‘Zhanshi Sichuan liangshi shengchan’, p. 149.

¹⁰⁸ Buck, An Agricultural Survey, p. 14Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁹ Liu, ‘Zhanshi Sichuan liangshi shengchan’, pp. 145–146.

¹¹⁰ Ibid, p. 150.

¹¹¹ van de Ven, Hans, War and Nationalism in China, 1925–1945 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2003), p. 262Google Scholar.

¹¹² ‘Qieshi shixing bingmin kentun’, 24 December 1942, KMT, 003 2365.

¹¹³ Naiqiang, Ren, ‘Xikang yuncang de fu li yu jianshe de tujing’ [The wealth of resources in Xikang, and the path to development], Xibei wenti jikan [The Northwest Quarterly] 2, no. 1 (1936), p. 53Google Scholar.

¹¹⁴ Report from the Nonglinbu Xikang Taining kenqu guanliju [Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture Xikang Taining cultivation region administration], 1944, IMH, 20–26–39–15. For the ranch at Gartar, see Lawson, ‘Warlord Colonialism’, p. 306.

¹¹⁵ Tibetan ethnicity may be guessed from individuals’ names (as written in Chinese characters), but not with total certainty in all cases. Report from the Nonglinbu Xikang Taining kenqu guanliju, 1945, IMH, 20–04–185–11.

¹¹⁶ Hill, Smokeless Sugar, pp. 50–51.

¹¹⁷ Li Fanqun, quoted in Erkin Ekrem, ‘Zhong Su guanxi zhong de “Dongtu” wenti (1944–1945)’ [The ‘East Turkestan problem’ within Sino-Soviet relations (1944–1945)], Liang An fazhan shi yanjiu no. 6 (December 2008), p. 128.

¹¹⁸ Luo Lixue, ‘Yisong tuiwu shibing ji nanmin zhiken biangjiang huangdi’, KMT, te 31 24 3 54.

¹¹⁹ Xikang jiansheng weihuihui, ‘Nanmin kenzhi jihua shu’, AH, 014000008849A.

¹²⁰ ‘Jiaoyu bu gonghan. Xikang xuesheng ying fu Xichang kenqu lü fei’ [Ministry of Education communication. Xikang student visit to Xichang cultivation zone request for 4,000 yuan travel expenses], IMH, 18–21–16–020–01.

¹²¹ Central Relief Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Ministry of Internal Affairs, ‘Guanyu Kang Ning Min san sheng nanmin yiken gongyi san’an jing hui shang ni ju yi’, 2 March 1939, AH, 014000008849A.

¹²² Ibid; Ningxia provincial government communication with the Executive Yuan, 7 August 1939, AH, 014000008849A.

¹²³ Ningxia provincial government communication with the Executive Yuan, 7 August 1939, AH, 014000008849A.

¹²⁴ Central Relief Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Ministry of Internal Affairs communication with the Executive Yuan, 5 October 1939, AH, 014000008849A.

¹²⁵ Ningxia provincial government communication with the Executive Yuan, 7 November 1939, AH, 014000008849A.

¹²⁶ ‘Qieshi shixing bingmin kentun’, 24 December 1942, KMT, 003 2365.

¹²⁷ Ibid.

¹²⁸ Muscolino, ‘Refugees, Land Reclamation, and Militarized Landscapes’, p. 464.

¹²⁹ Kong Xiangxi, ‘Cheng guan kaifa xibei chubu sheshi caoan’, 9 November 1942, AH, 001000006781A (1611).

¹³⁰ Weijiong, Zhang, ‘Xikang jian sheng ji Liu Wenhui de tongzhi’ [The establishment of Xikang province and Liu Wenhui's rule] in Sichuan wenshi ziliao xuanji, di shiliu ji [Sichuan historical and literary materials, Volume 16] (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1965), p. 34Google Scholar.

¹³¹ Goullart, Peter, Princes of the Black Bone: Life in the Tibetan Borderland (London: John Murray Publishers, 1959), p. 51Google Scholar.

¹³² Goullart, Princes of the Black Bone, p. 217.

¹³³ ‘Xikang sheng canyi hui, di yi ci hui hui bian’ [Minutes of the first meeting of the provisional Xikang Provincial Assembly], 1940, section 8, p. 12a, SPA, min204–14.

¹³⁴ Ibid.

¹³⁵ Ibid.

¹³⁶ Ibid.

¹³⁷ ‘Feichang shiqi nanmin yiken tiaoli’, p. 1037.

¹³⁸ ‘Guangdong sheng nanmin yiken shishi banfa’ (Guandong Province procedures and regulations for refugee migration), Nong dai xiaoxi (Agricultural credit news), 2, no. 1 (1940), p. 15.

¹³⁹ Gao Taiyan and Yu Chengzhong, ‘Shanxi Meifu ken qu nanmin jiti nongchang diaocha baogao’ [Survey report of the refugee collective farm in Shaanxi's Meifu cultivation zone], Xibei Nongbao [Northwestern Agricultural Bulletin] no. 2 (1946), p. 32.

¹⁴⁰ ‘Wei kaifa Xibei xunshe zhuanze jigou bing ban jiangzhu tiaoli qieshi yimin’ [Discussion on the need for prompt establishment of specialized bureau for the development of the Northwest, and the creation of incentives for migration], 24 December 1942, KMT, 003 2362.

¹⁴¹ Kong Xiangxi, ‘Caizhengbu gonghan’ [Ministry of Finance communication], 1943, IMH, 20–26–36–2.

¹⁴² Many writers seem to have been shocked by the condition of migrant societies in the Northwest. In 1934, Yan Weiti gave a typical description of migrants in Suiyuan: ‘People have almost no sense of sympathy for one another; neighbours do not help each other. [. . .] Their behaviour and customs are crude: casual fornication and adultery are common. Even people who barely know each other fall in love with great haste. [. . .] The underworld (jianghu) life is common here, and, without anything else to do, sex, gambling and opium smoking are the three main ways of passing time outside farm labour. [. . .] Many of the women in Hetao are prostitutes and most of the men smoke opium. Even the local gentry engage in such shameful activities.’ Yan Weiti, ‘Hetao diaocha ji’ [A record of a survey of Hetao] in Neimenggu shi zhi, Vol. 39, pp. 139–140.

¹⁴³ Chen Zhongwei, Xikang wenti [The Xikang question] (Shanghai: Zhonghua shu ju, 1930), p. 260; ‘Tuxing renfan yiken tiaoli’ [Regulations for the prisoner transportation and land cultivation work], 1934, AH, 001000000499A (2157).

¹⁴⁴ Wu Jingchao, ‘Lun Huifu Liuxing’ [On the restoration of exile as a punishment], Duli Pinglun [Independent critique] no. 66 (1933), p. 14.

¹⁴⁵ ‘Tuxing renfan yiken tiaoli’, AH, 001000000499A (2142).

¹⁴⁶ Chongqing Zhongguo yinhang diaocha zuzhi [Chongqing Bank of China survey team], ‘Diaocha Ziliao’ [Survey reports], Chuanbian Jikan [Sichuan Frontier Quarterly] 1, no. 1 (1935), p. 176.

¹⁴⁷ ‘Tu xing ren fan yi ken shishi banfa’ [Measures for transportation of prisoners for land-cultivation], Guangxi sheng zhengfu gongbao [Guangxi provincial government bulletin] no. 854 (1940).

¹⁴⁸ Dikötter, Frank, Crime, Punishment and the Prison in Modern China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), p. 349Google Scholar. ‘Tuxing renfan yiken shishi banfa’ [Measures for transportation of prisoners for land-cultivation], AH, 014000008823A.

¹⁴⁹ ‘Huabo Huanglongshan huangdi yiken tuxing renfan’ [Assigning wasteland in Huanglongshan for prisoner land cultivation], December 1942, IMH, 20–26–036–5; ‘Ni liyong Zhangye xian 20 li hetan wei junshi fanken qu’ [Using 20 li of riverside land in Zhangye for military prisoner land cultivation], July 1943, IMH, 20–26–036–6.

¹⁵⁰ ‘Guizhou sheng pingba xian yangyanba wei renfan kenhuang qu’ [Convict land cultivation at Yangyanba, Pingba county, Guizhou], 1941, IMH, 20–26–036–01.

¹⁵¹ Ministry of Agriculture communications with the Ministry of Finance, 16 January 1943, IMH, 20-26-036-2.

¹⁵² He Yingqin, ‘Junzheng bu gonghan: wei junshi fan yiken yi an’ [Ministry of War communication: on the transportation of military prisoners for land-cultivation work], May 1943, IMH, 20-26-036-2.

¹⁵³ Ibid.

¹⁵⁴ ‘Tu xing ren fan yi ken shishi banfa’.

¹⁵⁵ Dikötter, Crime, Punishment and the Prison, p. 350.

¹⁵⁶ ‘Tuxing renfan yiken tiaoli’, AH, 001000000499A(2180).

¹⁵⁷ ‘Tuxing renfan yiken tiaoli’, AH, 001000000499A (2173).

¹⁵⁸ ‘Huabo Huanglongshan huangdi yiken tuxing renfan’, December 1942, IMH, 20-26-036-5.

¹⁵⁹ Ibid.

¹⁶⁰ Ibid.

¹⁶¹ ‘Sa san niandu quanguo min fan cong ken diaocha’ [1944 national survey of civilian prisoners doing cultivation work], 19 January 1945, IMH, 20-26-037-14.

¹⁶² ‘Yanbian Yuli sifa xian zhengfu kanshousuo cheng’ [Report from Yuli, Yanbian county jail], 1945, IMH, 20-26-037-1.

¹⁶³ Dikötter, Crime, Punishment and the Prison, p. 350.

¹⁶⁴ ‘Sichuan ge jiansuo yijue weijue renfan diaocha jianbao’ [Summary report of surveys of prisoners convicted and awaiting judgment in Sichuan], AH, 022000004855A.

¹⁶⁵ Lin, Modern China's Ethnic Frontiers, p. 123.

¹⁶⁶ A growing body of literature stresses the institutional continuities between Nationalist and Communist rule. See, for example, Bian, The Making of the State Enterprise System. On settlements in the Northwest in the 1950s, see Rohlf, Greg, ‘Dreams of Oil and Fertile Fields: The Rush to Qinghai in the 1950s’, Modern China 29, no. 4 (October 2003), pp. 455–489CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Rohlf notes that ‘in their centralized management, extreme regimentation, state ownership of almost everything, and rhetoric [state farms in Qinghai] were very similar to agricultural communes’ (p. 472). It seems likely that Communist state farms and communes were both influenced by some combination of 1) pre-1949 Communist practice; 2) Soviet state farms; and 3) the kenzhiqu and other wartime experiments of Nationalist China. More research is required to determine which influences were most important in particular cases.

¹⁶⁷ Yan Zongtai, ‘Delingha nongchang jianchang jingguo’ [The establishment of the Delingha farm] in Qinghai wenshiziliao xuanbian, di shijiu ji: chuang ye lu [Qinghai historical and literary materials. Volume 19: The foundations of industry] (Xining: Qinghai renmin chubanshe, 1991), p. 100; Zhang Lijun, ‘Qian gu huangmo bian lüzhou–ji Nuobenhong nongchang de kaifa ji yeji’ [Making oases in the thousand-year wasteland: a record of the establishment of the Nuobenhong farm], in Qinghai wenshiziliao xuanbian, di shijiu ji, p. 108.

¹⁶⁸ Lin, Modern China's Ethnic Frontiers, p. 23.

¹⁶⁹ Eastman, Seeds of Destruction, pp. 162, 164–165.