Chinese Rural Development

This collection of essays written from 1947-1986 by Fei Hsiao-tung, China's most distinguished sociologist and anthropologist, presents a rich and representative sampling of the research that has characterized his long career. In 1936, Fei conducted field work in Kaixian'gong, a village in Jiangsu province in east China. This village became the subject of his now classic study Peasant Life in China, in which he argued that, because of China's huge population and the scarcity of cultivable land, household industries such as production of raw silk were vital to the peasants' economic survival. His conclusions, long rejected by China's policymakers, have recently been embraced by the government under the political leadership of Deng Xiaopeng. Returning to Kaixian'gong in 1957 and again in the 1980s, Fei examined the changes that had occurred since his initial research. Three essays that resulted from these follow-up studies are included in this collection, providing a rare summary and analysis of developments in the village between 1936 and 1986. Also included here are four articles based on Fei's 1983-84 research in other areas of Jiangsu province. His explorations of the contrast between the wealth of southern Jiangsu and the long-standing poverty of the northern half of the province address key issues of public policy in China today. Useful to students of rural sociology as well as of Chinese history, politics, economics, and anthropology, this collection will provide an overview not only of developments in the small towns of China but also of Fei's thought.

Author is an alumnus of Evanston Township High School, class of 1952.

This book systematically reviews the experiences and problems encountered in the development of China’s rural areas over the past three decades since the start of the country’s economic reform. As such, it addresses the most important aspects in terms of China’s rural communities, farmers and agriculture from the perspective of development, such as the agricultural management system, rural land tenure system, rural fiscal and taxation system, financial system, science and technology system, rural governance structure, poverty alleviation, environmental protection, etc. The approach employed combines essential theories, laws, and policy strategies with rural development practice in order to analyze the success stories and lingering problems, to explore the causes of both, and to offer an outlook on the future of rural development.

The story of one village, Yantian, and its remarkable economic and social transformation, this book shows how outcomes are shaped by a number of factors such as path dependence, social structures, economic resources and local entrepreneurship.

As China strives to achieve nothing less than a 'harmonious society' - despite the pronounced and institutionalized class structure that divides rural Chinese from urban, eastern from western, and rich from poor - a key element of that effort is a 'new socialist countryside'. The author assesses the prospects for China's rural revitalization programs now in their initial stages. The author draws on her extensive, front-line field research to discover precisely why Beijing's rural development polices, though helping many, have thus far bypassed hundreds of millions of farm households. Not least, she also identifies the capacities and political-economic conditions that hold the greatest promise for successful policy implementation. This book assesses the prospects for the rural revitalization programs that are a key element of China's quest for a 'harmonious society'.

•The focus of published narrative on the great Chinese urbanization wave was always going to sharpen _ away from the general fascination, assertions, theories and commentaries to specific issues and specific regions. Well here is a first class example

This text examines the Pacific War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, from the perspective of those who fought the wars and lived through them. The relationship between history and memory informs the book, and each war is relocated in the historical and cultural experiences of Asian countries.

Monograph on the experience and theoretical framework of rural development in China with regard to its relevance for other developing countries - covers historical background, agricultural policy, innovations and agricultural mechanization, land ownership, rural cooperative development, social changes in rural communitys, agricultural income, etc., and includes statistical tables on arable land in the world and some other experiments in rural development (incl. Tanzania, Bulgaria, Japan, Israel and India). Illustrations, and references.