ABSTRACT
The hukou registration system was a pillar of the population-control system that demarcated clearly between rural and urban populations. The key distinction was and has been between nongye hukou and feinongye hukou. Those with feinongye hukou had access to state-supplied grains and edible oils at reduced prices through the operation of the liangbu system. In China, migration figures also distinguish between liudong population who generally do not have local hukou and the qianyi who usually have obtained a local hukou. Many with agricultural hukouwork in factories, while many cadres with city hukou send their children back to the villages to work in the fields. Changing from agricultural to nonagricultural hukou status has been the dream of many a countryside resident since the hukousystem was established in 1958. The hukou system had its parallels in other internal passport, population-control systems, particularly in the former allies of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
