ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to spell out the complexity of local articulations of central documentary practices in rural Chinese 'rights defense' activities. It focuses a specific sphere of public life in the Chinese countryside where circulating policy documents congeal with existing visions of a just society to imagine the state as an ideal policy benefactor that not just promulgates policy plans and regulations but also stands for their translation into practice. The chapter starts by grounding the analysis of Meicun's contentious politics within the context of policy documents that for many rural people exemplify the gap between the ideal and the real state, or between the 'ought' and 'is' of rural politics. It draws on ethnographic material to explore emotional responses to 'imaginary policies' that result in hopes for justice at the center of which stands the central government or central state. The chapter ends with brief discussion of role problems of local policy implementation play in Meicun's land disputes.
