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Ecology Professor Writes to Chinese Audience |
| By
Deanna Lytle |
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Sep 5, 2003 |
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| Dr. Jiquan Chen walked through a ponderosa pine forest in northern Arizona. It was one of the many places he traveled while working on an ecology book. |
Gigantic trees, rolling hills and majestic rock formations are just some of the features Dr. Jiquan Chen highlights with words and pictures in his new book, Nature’s Giving Ecology of Ecosystems and Landscapes.
Chen, a University of Toledo associate professor of ecology, co-authored the Chinese published book with Dr. Quan Dong, an ecologist with the South Florida Natural Resource Center. The book originated from a presentation the two men gave at a conference in Mongolia. A publisher approached them afterward, and Chen and Dong began work on the book.
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| Dr. Jiquan Chen posed for a photo in the Western Desert of Egypt. |
According to Chen, the most difficult thing about the writing process was the struggle between the wishes of the publisher and their own vision. “The publisher wanted good pictures, but we wanted good stories to go along with those pictures,” he said. “We tried to write for the public, using pretty pictures as an attraction. We want people to learn more about ecology.” Half of the pictures in the book are Chen’s, taken at U.S. National Parks. Dong contributed the rest of the photographs, many of which are from Africa and China. He also did a lot of the writing. “Quan is better in Chinese than I am,” Chen said with a laugh.
The book is divided into 12 chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of ecology. The two authors cover all of the earth’s ecosystems, including prairies, wetlands, deserts and forests. And as Chen and Dong wanted, each picture is accompanied by information explaining its origins.
“These are birch trees near China’s border with Mongolia,” Chen said pointing to a picture of white trunks bent sideways — not what you’d think of being very tree-like. “They have snow on them most of the year so they get bent. These are the only birch trees like this in the world.”
Chen points to another picture of tiny brown balls growing on a tree branch. “This is mistletoe on a hemlock. It infects trees while they’re young and grows up with them. There is one body, although there are two separate species,” he said.
With all of the stories that Chen and Dong’s book has to tell, it’s a shame that no one in China is able to read it. After many requests came in, the books are piled in the publisher’s house — not being sold or distributed. “I was surprised to learn this, but nobody wants to sell it because they don’t get any profit from it,” Chen said. “The salespeople have to give all of their profit to the government.” But Chen is hopeful that they will find someone willing to sell their book.
Meanwhile, Chen and Dong are taking the money they earned from the publisher and putting it to good use. “We’re distributing all the money to remote, poor schools in China,” Chen said.
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