City Versus Countryside In China S Development

While most attention is given to the booming mega-cities in China and the associated problems of over-population, the rural areas in China are being largely ignored. Yet, a sustainable development of the rural areas is precisely that, which will be decisive for China’s future. Through its rapid development into an industrial country, China now needs to tackle far-reaching problems such as increasing population, growing income gap between the poor and the rich, rural exodus, decreased agricultural production, and environmental pollution. Rural Urban Framework is a work group at the University of Hong Kong that not only researches the far-reaching changes of the last thirty years in China’s rural areas, but has also realized concrete projects aimed at improving supply and infrastructure on site. In this publication, the authors present for the first time the results of their research as well as their built projects in the Chinese backlands, and question whether China’s only future model lies in cities.

First published in 1980. This book analyzes Chinese society and evaluates the achievements and failures of the Maoist ideology. The central theme is the urban and rural balance in China's development from the Revolution to the late twentieth century. The Fading of the Maoist Vision shows how the original Revolutionary blueprint was altered and the ways in which China has steered a different course from that charted by Mao as the ideological vision encountered an increasingly pressing set of economic realities. The book: · Is particularly valuable in setting China's achievements in the larger context of global ideas about the problems of national development and by comparing them to the experience of India in its pursuit of the Gandhian ideal.

The prosperity of China’s people has advanced very much in recent decades. However, in many respects China is still a developing country, and this is especially true of rural areas where economic progress has not been as marked as in urban areas and where many people still live in relative poverty. The Chinese government recognizes that more hard work is needed in order to improve prosperity in the countryside. This book provides a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the situation in China’s rural areas, assesses the effectiveness or otherwise of current policies, and puts forward proposals for further development. Subjects covered include the changing population profile of rural areas, land ownership, agricultural improvements, and local self-government.

The trajectory and logic of urban development in post-Mao China have been shaped and defined by the contention between domestic and global capital, central and local state and social actors of different class status and endowment. This urban transformation process of historic proportion entails new rules for distribution and negotiation, novel perceptions of citizenship, as well as room for unprecedented spontaneity and creativity. Based on original research by leading experts, this book offers an updated and nuanced analysis of the new logic of urban governance and its implications.

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.

This book provides a general description and evaluation of the process of urbanization in China and the urgent challenges facing the Chinese government. Urban Transformation in China examines the changing pattern of China's urban population and the determinants of these changes, including an analysis of the spatial structures of China's cities and industry and an assessment of urban productivity growth and the role of mega cities in national development. The book's coverage encompasses both academic and policy perspectives. With its sister volume Urbanization and Social Welfare in China it provides a comprehensive and multidisciplinary overview of the country’s urbanization process.

The urban-rural relationship in China is key to a sustainable global future. This book is particularly interested in peri-urbanization in China, the process by which fringe areas of cities develop. Recent institutional change has helped clarify property rights over collective land, facilitating peri-urban area development. Chapters in this book explore how rural industrialization has changed the landscape and rules about land use in peri-urban areas. It looks at the role of rural industrialization and provides a detailed exploration of peri-urbanization theory, policy, and its evolution in China. Leading discussions find out how fragmented bottom-up industrialization, urbanization, and lax governance have led to a series of social and environmental problems. The progress in redevelopment of peri-urban areas was initially slow due to the spatial lock-in effect. This book offers practical solutions to environmental issues and explains how policymakers have the potential to redevelop a future collaborative, inclusive, and sustainable approach to peri-urban areas. This in-depth approach to urbanization will be useful to academics in urban planning and governmental organizations. It will also be advantageous to NGOs and professionals involved in urban planning, public administration, as well as land-use work in China and other developing countries.