ABSTRACT
As an introduction of the book, Chapter 1 briefly explains the topic, theories, and methodology of the book. The author first analyzed the importance of petition in understanding the power system in the Chinese party-state. Then the author pointed out that petition, combining functions of both judicial relief and administrative relief, thus becomes a main tool of redressing wrongdoings, protecting legal rights, and providing relief. By telling a story, the topic of this book was to analyze how the grassroots groups utilize petitions to express their appeals and how governments at all levels managed to quell the disturbances and settle the petitions in the process, so readers could understand the basic logic of power operation in post-Mao China. Then the author analyzed the specialty of petitions by the dam migrants in China, pointing out that unsettled leftover problems and collective petitions one after another acutely reflects the predicament and contradiction of the grassroots power in the decollectivization era. At last, the author explained the selection of the place of fieldwork, the relation between the author and the field, and the reason for choosing storytelling as the way to write this book.
