Panda Nation: The Construction and Conservation of China’s Modern Icon

By: Elena Songster

China announced ambitious plans in 2017 to establish a series of large-scale national parks, some to become the world’s largest. The expressed purpose of several of these parks, distinct from national level nature protection reserves, is to target specific high-profile animal species on a grand scale. Unsurprisingly, a giant panda park is included among the plans. This Giant Panda National Park is designed to bring together the many isolated populations of giant pandas that exist in tens of small reserves across half a dozen different mountain ranges. It is a monumental investment in China’s iconic animal ambassador. In addition to the giant panda park, China is also working on a tiger park, Tibetan antelope park, and an elephant park. Not all the new national parks will focus on a specific species, some – like the Sanjiangyuan park in Qinghai on the Tibetan plateau – are designed to better preserve China’s vital water sources and the stunning natural beauty.

Some people see a large park named as a protection zone for a specific animal as misguided and excessive emphasis on the conservation of charismatic megafauna; others consider this approach simply to be a pragmatic means to protect many less known, and less attractive but ecologically important species. Indeed, money raised for pandas brings substantial benefit to the biosphere that surrounds these popular icons and beyond.

But does the panda have any innate value? As early as the 1950s and 1960s, even scientists and government officials saw value in preserving the giant panda along with other unique species and China’s natural beauty as part of scientific approaches to building a socialist state.

The history of creating nature protection reserves in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) dates back almost to the nation’s founding and panda reserves were the first species-specific reserves that China established. Chinese scientists discussed nature reserves at length with their Soviet counterparts along with other scientific projects. In 1956, the PRC created Dinghu Shan, its first nature reserve in the southern province of Guangdong, after a group of five members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), including vice-president Zhu Kezhen, presented a proposal at the Third Plenum of the First National People’s Congress. This reserve was intended to facilitate research on and to discover natural organisms and other resources that could benefit society as a whole. Changbai Shan, located in the temperate region of the northeastern province of Jilin, was the next reserve established, offering a very different climate for research.

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