Highlighting the interwoven relationship between Chinese rural society and larger historical forces, this book charts the evolution of China’s rural society from 1901 to 1949, concentrating on the major changes of this period and the scenarios developed to modernize rural society during the half century leading up to the Revolution. The modern history of rural China is one of sweeping institutional and structural transformation across many dimensions. As the first half of the twentieth century unfolded, against a backdrop of turbulent changes across a country that underwent industrialization, urbanization and modernization, China’s agriculture, rural population and rural communities encountered many crises, but also showed remarkable resilience and capacity for adaptation and reform. In each of the six chapters, the author delves into one aspect or examines one period of this massive transformation, and identifies the social, economic, political and cultural signifi cance of these tumultuous processes at work. The book will appeal to both scholars and general readers interested in modern Chinese history and the transformation of rural China.

In 1949, G. William Skinner, a Cornell University graduate student, set off for southwest China to conduct field research on rural social structure. He settled near the market town of Gaodianzi, Sichuan, and lived there for two and a half months, until the newly arrived Communists asked him to leave. During his time in Sichuan, Skinner kept detailed field notes and took scores of photos of rural life and unfolding events. Skinner went on to become a giant in his field--his obituary in American Anthropologist called him "the world's most influential anthropologist of China." A key portion of his legacy arose from his Sichuan fieldwork, contained in his classic monograph Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China. Although the People's Liberation Army confiscated Skinner's research materials, some had been sent out in advance and were discovered among the files donated to the University of Washington Libraries after his death. Skinner's notes and photos bring to life this rare glimpse of rural China on the brink of momentous change.

This book analyses the urbanisation of rural China in the period of the country’s reform and opening-up based on an investigation of five villages in the Pearl River Delta region, analysing progress, problems and future prospects in the light of long-term investigations on the ground and follow-up fieldwork. Drawing on a vast body of data obtained from participation observation, interviews, archival documents, questionnaires and oral histories, the author charts the trajectory of urbanisation as rural landscapes, governance models, social structures and development dynamics have morphed into urban phenomena. Stimulated by outside capital and pro-growth policies, each of the five villages has undergone a distinct economic, social, institutional, cultural and demographic transformation while facing challenges and opportunities such as land requisition, residential areas with a strong concentration of migrants, changing power relations between state and local community, the influence of traditional lineage and clan structures and quandaries over identity. The book will appeal to scholars and students of sociology and Chinese Studies as well as general readers interested in contemporary China and Chinese urbanisation.

This book examines socio-economic relationships and cultural changes in contemporary rural China, focusing on the experience of a typical Chinese village the working-age population of which has been hollowed out by outbound labor migration. The volume sheds light on the inherent complexity of peasants’ material, economic, and emotional dependency on the countryside, and how these relationships shape their experience of migration and the personal transformation that comes with it. Simplistic binaries such as “traditional” and “modern” are left to one side in favour of a multifaceted approach to understanding the interactions among people, institutions, and the natural environment. The book will appeal to academics of sociology and anthropology and general readers interested in China’s rural society.

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, a state-led urbanization has evolved into a "city management" in China: A large number of villages were demolished; cultivated land was centralized; and peasants went to live in apartments, which led to the widespread emergence of "village-turned-communities". This title explores the evolving and complex relationship between the urbanization of land and people – two core components of China’s urbanization strategy. What role does the government play in resolving conflicts around these two aspects of urbanization? What role can it play in adjudicating them? To answer these questions, the author examines rural migrants’ experience in integrating and being integrated into the cities. Through a three-year investigation in Beijing, Shandong, Hubei and Yunnan, the author shows how government policies can either engender or mitigate conflicts, as well as identifies integrated governance as an effective approach to urbanization of both land and people. This title is awarded the top ten Chinese sociology books in 2019. Students and scholars of sociology, politics and public administration will benefit from this book.