Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization

Front Cover
University of California Press, 2009 - Business & Economics - 408 pages
Chen Village has been acclaimed as a modern classic. The book's first two editions presented an enthralling and beautifully written account of a Chinese village in the throes of Maoist revolution--with tumultuous political campaigns, power struggles, a Cultural Revolution rebellion, and radical shifts in social customs--followed by dramatic changes in village life and local politics during the Deng Xiaoping period. Now, more than a decade and a half later, the authors have returned to Chen Village, and in three new chapters they explore astonishing developments. The once-backwater village is today a center of China's export industry, where more than 50,000 workers labor in modern factories, ruled over by the village government. The new chapters show how the latest swing in fortunes has affected the Chens' self-identity, customs, and entrepreneurship, while laying bare the stark situation of the workers who crowd in from poor parts of China's countryside. This new edition of Chen Village illuminates, in microcosm, the recent history of rural China up to the present time.
 

Contents

Chen Village and Its Leaders
26
The Big Four Cleanups
41
Studying Chairman Mao
74
The Cultural Revolution
103
The Cleansing of the Class Ranks
141
A Leftward Lurch and a Solid Footing
169
The Great Betrothal Dispute
186
Plunging into a New Decade
213
The Troubled Seventies
236
The New Era
267
The Midas Touch
288
Entrepreneurs and Gamblers
309
Globalization and Transformation
330
Lifestyles of a MiddleClass Community
354
Outsiders
376
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