What's A Peasant To Do? Village Becoming Town In Southern China / Edition 1

by Greg Guldin

Overview

Since China entered the post-Mao "Reform Era" in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Chinese economy has taken off as few economies ever have. Labor migration, rural enterprises, rising production, and globalization have all combined to end the isolation of the Chinese countryside. Yet although China's unsurpassed economic boom has produced reams of impressive statistics, has this economic growth led to improving the livelihood of the average Chinese person? Has development accompanied economic growth? Has the promise of "opening to the outside" been fulfilled in providing a better life for China's 1.2 billion-plus people? In this book, which is based on field work, Guldin presents and explores some of the changes sweeping through China in the 1990s that are affecting hundreds of millions of people. Guldin looks at the growth of town and village enterprises, labor mobility, and the other aspects of rural urbanization to investigate the connection between economic growth and development in contemporary China. The political changes at the village level, the swelling flows of capital, data, goods, and people, new ways of thinking and behaving, and a significant surge in social inequalities are all topis for chapter discussions. Guldin invites readers to face the same question that former Chinese peasants must face, namely, how to respond, as their villages are transformed forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813338002
Publisher:	Westview Press
Publication date:	01/26/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	322
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1430L (what's this?)

About the Author

Gregory Eliyu Guldin is a cultural anthropologist with long experience in the study of changing Chinese society.

Table of Contents

Townizing Southern China , Introduction: Reflections on Growth and Development , Townizing Southern China 1 , District Differences , Village Becoming Town , The Entrepreneur and the Cadre: The Political Economy of Townization , Townizing Flows in the Chinese Countryside , Population Moility, Hukou Preference, and Urbanization , Townizing Life , Richer, Freer, and Goods Galore: Lifestyle Changes , She’s Got Everything! , Thinking , Townizing Life , Problems Amidst Plenty , The Waishengren Are Coming! , Inequalities , Conclusion: What Are Peasants to Do? , Glossary

Editorial Reviews

Since the late 1970s, labor migration, rural enterprises, rising production, and globalization have all combined to end the isolation of the Chinese countryside. In this text, which is based upon fieldwork, Guldin (Pacific Lutheran U.) examines some of the changes affecting former commune peasants in southern China in the 1990s. Some of the topics covered include political changes at the village level, lifestyle changes, and social inequalities. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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