ABSTRACT
Asia, and especially China, will play a crucial role in how our geo-historical epoch will unfold, yet the Anthropocene concept has found comparatively little resonance in this world region. Why is this the case? This essay argues that reactions to the Anthropocene are conditioned by the experience of modernity. In the West, modernity was marked by an escape from Malthusian constraints, enabled by fossil fuels and the appropriation of resources from the colonial periphery. China is now pursuing a similar path, but it is also following a trajectory that is informed by the Malthusian catastrophes the country suffered during the 19th and 20th century. China thus commands our attention both as a model and a warning of the biopolitical futures humanity can expect in the Anthropocene.
