ABSTRACT
Commune-era policies tied the socioeconomic status of villages to the well-being of families in those villages. A large part of this study is directed at finding out whether, over a decade after the commune system was dismantled, the village still plays an important role in individual and household well-being. This chapter documents how households in the six villages do indeed embody characteristics specific to each village, and that the larger village community is still a determinant of villager well-being. Here I will identify the local standards of well-being and show where households in the six survey villages stand in relation to these standards. To this end I use ethnographic materials to give a sense of what prosperity means for the 554 Ganglong residents whom the survey covered, as well as present quantitative data from household surveys conducted in these six villages for comparison.
