ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that thirty years ago the sounds heard in Longbow Village were country sounds cocks crowing in the darkness before dawn, the creak of giant millstones as they were pushed around their stone beds by hand. Longbow Village is suburban, a community in transition from agriculture to industry where the way of life is undergoing not only socialization but urbanization and industrialization. Dazhai is a small settlement in Shanxi Province less than a day's journey by jeep from Longbow. It became famous because they put the welfare of their community ahead of individual self-interest, put agricultural production ahead of sidelines or trade. When Longbow peasant activists returned from Dazhai they continued to farm their heavy, level alkaline land much as they always had before and with the same indifferent results. Longbow Village absorbs the labor power released by these machines by setting up a plant to manufacture the grain augers, grain dryers, and center pivot pipes.
