Introduction: Scholarly Debates and Rural Development as the Countryside Moves into the Twenty-First Century

One of five people in the world lives in rural China. Given the magnitude of China’s population, what happens to China’s farmers has tremendous implications, not just for urban China or China’s ambitious reform program, but for the entire world. Global commodity prices, political and economic stability in East Asia, and China’s foreign trade competitiveness will all be affected by outcomes in rural China. ¹ For 18 years, China’s rural inhabitants have undergone one of the most dramatic transformations in world history: restructuring the economic, political, social, and transnational institutions extant at the end of the Maoist era. New, expanded freedoms have been granted to China’s farmers by the state, while they themselves have fought for other political rights and economic opportunities. The enormity of these events cannot be overstated. Since I first lived in rural China in 1981, I have observed these ongoing changes. The chapters that follow, written over 15 years, reflect the core themes in my work which touch on the socioeconomic and political transition still under way in rural China.