The Peasant In Postsocialist China

A radical new appraisal of the role of the peasant in post-socialist China, putting recent debates into historical perspective.

The role of the peasant in society has been fundamental throughout China's history, posing difficult, much-debated questions for Chinese modernity. Today, as China becomes an economic superpower, the issue continues to loom large. Can the peasantry be integrated into a new Chinese capitalism, or will it form an excluded and marginalized class? Alexander F. Day's highly original appraisal explores the role of the peasantry throughout Chinese history and its importance within the development of post-socialist-era politics. Examining the various ways in which the peasant is historicized, Day shows how different perceptions of the rural lie at the heart of the divergence of contemporary political stances and of new forms of social and political activism in China. Indispensable reading for all those wishing to understand Chinese history and politics, The Peasant in Postsocialist China is a new point of departure in the debate as to the nature of tomorrow's China.

Class and Class Conflict in Post-Socialist China traces the origins and the profound changes of the patterns of class conflict in post-socialist China since 1978. The first of its kind in the field of China Studies that offers comprehensive overviews and traces the historical evolutions of different patterns of class conflict (among workers, peasants, capitalists, and the middle class) in post-socialist China, the book provides comprehensive overviews of different patterns of class conflict. It uses a state-centered approach to study class conflict, i.e., study how the communist party-state restructures the patterns of class conflict in Chinese society, and brings in a historical dimension by tracing the origins and developments of class conflict in socialist and post-socialist China. Contents:IntroductionClass and Class Conflict in Socialist China (1949–1978)Class and Class Conflict in Post-Socialist China Since 1978The Making of a Cadre–Capitalist ClassThe Transformation of the Maoist Working Class in Urban ChinaThe Making of the New Migrant Working Class in South ChinaThe Making and Remaking of the Maoist PeasantryThe Making of a New Middle ClassConclusion Readership: Advanced undergraduate or graduate students and professionals interested in Chinese studies, political science and social issues related to China. Keywords:China;Social Class;Class Conflict;The State;Socialism;Capitalism;DevelopmentKey Features:Provides comprehensive overviews of different patterns of class conflictBrings in a historical dimension of class conflict in socialist and post-socialist ChinaUses a state-centered approach to study class conflict

This book uses a state-centered approach to trace the historical origins, developments, and evolutions of different patterns of class conflict among workers, peasants, capitalists, and the middle class in socialist and post-socialist China.

During the past decade, life in post-socialist states has been fraught with instability and conflict. This book focuses on changing rural-urban relations - and growing divisions between them - in the context of the reforms. Contributions to this volume explore responses to capitalist-oriented policies and reasons for rural disenfranchisement. The work takes an ethnographic approach to exploring how 'global' processes engage with local, rural concerns in the post-socialist world.

Case study of a rural area village in Hong Kong as an example of the effects of social change and economic development within a capitalist framework - covers historical aspects, the occupational structure, rural workers, cultivation techniques, farm management, property ownership, land tenure, family budgets, the standard of living, cultural factors, etc. Bibliography pp. 207 to 212.

There is no denying that China has experienced, and is still experiencing, radical changes, generally initiated by the vibrant market-driven economy that began in the late 1970s. The question remains, however, of what has happened to those who, just a few decades before, experienced pride and power in being part of the proletariat. How do they make sense of the past and face up to the uncertainties of the future? This book presents an anthropological investigation into their lives and memories in order to understand their situation.Presently a working-class neighborhood in Shanghai, Cucumber Lane was in the 1960s a well-known socialist ?model community? being transformed from an urban slum in the 1940s. The neighborhood was further recast as a ?civilized small community? in the 1990s. Based on oral histories as well as ethnographic observations and pertinent historical materials, this book portrays the ways the Chinese have been making sense of and coping with radical changes during a period punctuated by shifts in political priorities, vicissitudes in ideological orientation, changes in the way they conceive of their relationship with the state and enterprises, the (de-)politicization of social identities, the rise and fall of collectivism, and the explosive vitality of the new market economy.