The Way of the Panda

by Henry Nicholls

Overview

Learn how the extraordinary impact of the panda—from obscurity to fame—is also the story of China's transition from shy beginnings to center stage.

Giant pandas have been causing a stir ever since their formal scientific discovery just over 140 years ago. For almost a century they defied classification; they outwitted hunters and escaped trappers, left the public elbowing and zoo turnstiles spinning, were sent on diplomatic journeys, branded onto products and turned into company logos. Thanks to the World Wide Fund for Nature this species became the face of global conservation. Yet in spite of humankind’s evident obsession with the giant panda, it is only in the last few decades that scientific research has begun to show us what this mysterious, frequently misunderstood creature is really like.


Henry Nicholls uses the rich and curious history of the giant panda to do several things: to ponder our changing attitudes towards the natural world; to offer a compelling history of the conservation movement; and to chart the rise of modern China on its journey to become the self-sufficient, twenty-first-century superpower it is today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605987583
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	06/01/2012
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Henry Nicholls writes regularly for Nature, New Scientist, and BBC Focus as well as the science journals, Endeavor and Galapagos News. His first book, Lonesome George, told the story of the last giant tortoise of Pinta in the Galapagos and was shortlisted for the 2007 Royal Society General Book Prize. Henry lives in London.

Henry Nicholls writes regularly for Nature, New Scientist, and BBC Focus as well as the science journals, Endeavor and Galapagos News. His first book, Lonesome George, told the story of the last giant tortoise of Pinta in the Galapagos and was shortlisted for the 2007 Royal Society General Book Prize. Henry lives in London.

Table of Contents

Maps viii

Prologue ix

Part I Extraction

1 A most excellent black-and-white bear 3

2 Skin and bones 21

3 Game on 38

4 Live action 58

Part II Abstraction

5 Communist goods 79

6 The face of conservation 94

7 Sexual politics 118

8 Life after death 138

Part III Protection

9 Presidential pandas 159

10 Born free 178

11 Captive subjects 204

12 Into the future 231

Epilogue 258

Notes 265

List of Illustrations 295

Acknowledgments 298

Further Reading 301

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

For a shy, solitary species whose population numbers in the mere thousands, the giant panda carries plenty of symbolic and political clout. Nicholls, an English science writer, ably charts the emergence of the panda as a species and as the face of the World Wildlife Fund. He tackles the animal's potent role as "a symbolic ambassador for the Chinese nation" in its overtures to the rest of the world, particularly after the 1949 founding of the People's Republic of China, with initiatives known as "panda diplomacy." From the panda's Western "discovery" in 1869 by the Catholic missionary and naturalist Armand David to current conservation efforts in the mountainous Sichuan province and in zoos worldwide, Nicholls examines the notion of the panda as "charismatic megafauna," science-speak for an animal so appealing that it has became the poster child for endangered species on a global scale. When Nicholls sticks to descriptions of the animal's natural history, his writing is clear, crisp, and instructive, and this accessibly written book manages to weave together science, politics, conservation, and the interactions of a rising China with the rest of the world. It's clear that the panda itself is the only part of the species' story that should be presented in black and white. (June)

Publishers Weekly

A brilliant storyteller and narrative stylist in the finest tradition.

Michael Shermer

A fascinating story of an extraordinary animal.

Desmond Morris

Nicholls is surely set to become an author of many more fascinating science books. In many ways, this book is what good science writing is all about—explanation through a ripping narrative.

The independent [London]

Richly diverting. At times everything concerning the creatures seems to have a political angle: not only their value as state gifts but also their precise scientific classification; their mating habits and offspring; and the efforts to ensure their preservation. The author compares the history of the panda in the modern world to that of China itself.

The Wall Street Journal

Like his beloved cousin the teddy bear, the cuddly panda is also a mascot—an emissary of good will, an icon of the World Wildlife Fund and a symbol of China's national identity.

Science writer Nicholls (Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of the World's Most Famous Tortoise, 2007) deconstructs the panda as a cultural icon and unravels the fascinating story of its real life—not as a bored, sometimes fractious presence in a zoo, but as a remarkably resourceful, elusive inhabitant of the forests of China. The giant panda first came to Western notice in the mid-1800s, and author relates exciting tales of those early encounters. For the next 100 years, naturalists argued about whether this huge animal with its distinctive markings was more closely related to the raccoon, whose markings were somewhat similar, or the bear. (Modern DNA testing has resolved the issue in favor of the bear.) The Chinese have used the panda as a brand for its state electronic factories, and the WWF puts it forward to rally support for endangered species. The gifts of young pandas of opposite sexes were a symbol of moves toward detente with the Soviets, even though the two pandas in question refused to cooperate and the efforts to breed them were abortive. More significant was China's 1978 agreement to partner with the WWF in a major research program to observe pandas in the wild, in order to protect its continued existence in its natural habitat and understand how to breed and manage them more humanely in captivity. Nicholls provides a deeper, more meaningful understanding of "real wild pandas" and why their continued existence matters, not for our amusement but so that we can come to understand their "undeniable mystery." He also writes that "[t]he conservation of wild pandas has also become a test of ourselves as a species."

A welcome addition to the panda bookshelf.

Kirkus Reviews