ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on data collected in Hsin Hsing, a village whose economic system has changed between the late 1950s and 1980s from one primarily based on agriculture to one predominantly dependent on off-farm employment. When the Chinese Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan in 1949, it found the island to be primarily agricultural, with conditions that were not consistently favorable to development. To spur economic growth, the government initially strengthened agriculture to provide a base for industrialization, briefly pursued a strategy of import substitution during the 1950s, and then, in the 1960s, adopted a policy of industrialization through export. The government's policy of export-oriented industrialization brought about rapid urbanization and migration from rural areas to cities during the 1960s. Because the economy of Taiwan is inextricably linked to the world capitalist system, it depends heavily on foreign trade and is extremely vulnerable to international market fluctuations.
