ABSTRACT
The biggest drawbacks of China’s social modernization are problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. The fundamental work in making the people wealthy and the country strong is to improve the basic living status of 900 million farmers. Thus, work and wealth status of rural youth can be regarded, to some extent, as the barometer of China’s social modernization. This report is meant to describe and discuss, as objectively as possible, work and wealth status of contemporary rural youth of China on the basis of primary data from the 1999 status survey of rural youth by China Youth and Children Research Center, relevant historical documents, and statistics concerning agriculture and rural areas from National Bureau of Statistics since China’s reform and opening-up (Zhang, 2002). Rural youth as a special and rapidly diversified group defy easy occupational classifications.
