ABSTRACT
Whatever justifications might be offered for brokerage, insurance, restaurants, tourism, entertainment, commerce, or advertising, radicals in Mao’s time deemed these services “nonproductive.” Measurable service productivity in China grew after 1970, but the revival of services was bumpy. This sector employed youths who returned to cities in the 1970s, especially for the 1979 dingti program – in which many of their parents did not actually retire to bequeath jobs. Shops hired far more employees than “steel-eating” industries did, but services had trouble finding urban space. Street hawkers thrived, although most lacked licenses they were legally supposed to have. Private “individual households” (actually small companies) employed many people in the officially “agricultural” suburbs. These companies were not supposed to hire more than five regular employees. Not until 1987 did the government restore legal status to “private enterprises” (siying qiye), many of which had already made their local owners rich. When taxes rose, service providers often deregistered their companies.
