Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization

This book is a longitudinal study of social, economic, and political change of a rural village in South China in order to illuminate how village residents, local cadres, and sent-down youths have responded to a blizzard of political winds since the 1960s. It also reveals the impact of industrialization and globalization on social and economic life of village residents and migrant workers during the 90s and the first decade of the twentieth-first century.This book is unique in three key aspects as compared with other works on China. First, the authors (three sociologists from US and Australia) have undertaken more than 300 qualitative interviews (P.5) of village residents and sent-down youths who have intimate knowledge and experience of what has occurred in their village. Moreover, the authors have paid several visits to the village between 1987 and 1990 and between 2006 and 2007 (P.8) in order to fill in the mental images of how local customs, social stratification, and social life of the village were affected by the forces of urbanization and industrialization. Data collected in this book are first hand which are relatively more authentic and reliable than secondary data (i.e. newspapers, magazines, and statistics) widely employed by other works on China.Second, this book does not focus on key political figures such as Mao and Deng who have significantly transformed political and economic landscapes of China since 1949. Key actors under study are a group of uneducated, poor, and powerless Chinese domiciling in a very backward village who have to tack with different political winds and external forces. Most of the village residents cared more about their livelihoods than politics but they were forced to participate in tumultuous political campaigns. Sent-down youths pleaded their unquestionable allegiance to Mao's maxim during the Cultural Revolution. Chapter 9 narrates how they lost faith in Maoism and the communist party during mid-70s and they finally fled the village.Third, this book depicts in rich details the political environment at rural village level. Local cadres usually played favorites towards their kin and their leadership style was of the traditional Chinese gentry. Village residents had to curry their favor by plying them with gifts (P.281) since they allocated state resources and controlled access to permits of all sorts. Although the law stipulated that village government leadership should be elected by the residents every three years, the communist party decided the final list of nominees and there was "no objection from the people" (P.345). This is democracy in rural China!The 5-decade Chen Village's tale is a dramatic irony of contemporary society in China. Due to rapid industrialization, agricultural fields and fish ponds in the village had been replaced by new manufacturing plants. Village residents could lead to a better middle-class lifestyle by giving up their agricultural fields to receive regular cash payment from the village government. Migrant workers poured into the village in hope of securing temporary livelihoods. Analogous to the sour living environment of original village residents before 1980s, they were surviving in exhaustion through long work and harsh employment terms.This book is highly recommended to readers who are interested in having a full understanding of the process of economic modernities, capitalist development, class inequalities, and social identities in rural China.

It is very interesting, as it includes what happens in the village during the Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, and the Reform in the 80s. I highly recommend this to people who are interest in modern Chinese history.

This book is really interesting. It uses the stories in Chen Village to tell the stories of Cultural Revolution. By looking at different characters, including their personality, interpersonal connection, and family background, we have more ideas and insights of what happened in the Cultural Revolution and how people actually reacted to this Revolution. This one is the third edition. Different from the first two editions, this third edition tells the condition of today's Chen Village. Thus, we not only understand what happened in the Cultural Revolution, but we are also able to know the effect of the Cultural Revolution on today's Chen Village. This is a very good book.

This is good read and the book was in great condition. I read this for a modern china class and it was good reading

I don't actually love this book. In fact, for me it's very boring, but I don't think it's necessarily the book's fault. I'm just not interested in the topic.I'm not going to give the book a bad review for that; I'm sure it's probably worth at least 4 stars, and I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.So why did I get it in the first place? Well, I study Chen style taiji, and I'm interested in the history of Chen Village, especially since it's currently marketed as being the original taiji, an unbroken lineage going back 24 generations or whatever, and taiji is the village's claim to fame and source of tourism; but I've heard that following WWII, the Communist government suppressed martial arts for a considerable period of time, so it's questionable whether there is any original, unbroken lineage of any martial arts in China. It probably would have had to be practiced in secret.So I got this book from the library; I'm sure glad I didn't buy it. Some idiot has marked this copy up with pencil, which is really annoying, but worse, there doesn't seem to be a single word in it anywhere about Chen Fake, or Chen Xiaowang, Chen Zhenglei or the other "Four Tigers", any member of the taiji Chen family, taiji, or martial arts of any kind. I'm thinking this must not be the right Chen village.So I can't comment on the quality of the book. What I can say is, don't get this book for Chen taiji or its history; that's not in here.And I just want to ask if anyone knows-- is this the same Chen Village? Seems like it must not be; I don't know these authors could fail to mention it at all. And can anyone recommend a better source for what I'm interested in?

This is possibly the best book about China out of the 200 or so I have read. Rather than the macro-level view of the policies of the Mao and Deng eras covered in so many volumes, it describes their implementation at the village level, their impact on everyday life, and the interpersonal dynamics that result from the changing political winds. The insights that result are fascinating.After finishing this book, I now understand better the reasons for the behaviors and thought patterns of some of my Chinese friends.While I think this book would be difficult to put in context for the reader who is exploring China for the first time, anyone who has some experience with the country and its people will really enjoy it.