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Urban sprawl shrinks rural communal ties
By Ni Tao |
October 21, 2011, Friday
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EDITOR'S note: History is a mirror of realtiy. But does the official mirror reflect things as they are or were? Not always, says professor Zhang Letian of Fudan University, an expert on People's Communes. To present a lesser-known side of history, Zhang has been scouring rural Haining in northern Zhejiang Province for original documentation of agricultural life. He spoke to Shanghai Daily reporter Ni Tao last week about what his studies can tell us about a China old and new. This is the third and last of a three-part interview.
Q: Many lament the demise of rural China due to rapid urbanization. Is Haining losing its rural scenery and spirit and experiencing land grabs?
A: To begin with, we cannot return to the idyllic past. Rural life is now undesirable, even for the young children of peasants. Thus, urban sprawl will further shrink the countryside.
But how fast should urbanization go?
If the government hastily pushes it, we'll hear more often of peasants being "forced upstairs" after their land is seized for development.
Not all peasants are willing to swap native homes for new life in cities. Some local governments have strained ties with farmers because they sacrifice people's concerns over economic growth. They still regard growth as the panacea for all problems.
Governments have built factories, some heavily polluting, that people never want.
In Haining, where rural family income averages tens of thousands of yuan a year, peasants find construction of industrial plants in the midst of their homes not just meaningless, but also potentially dangerous.
Nonetheless, all levels of government are still enslaved to the GDP fetish. To perpetuate economic growth, they need more land. Where does it come from?
As China is determined to protect 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) of arable land, governments now covet the land on which peasants' houses sit. It is tradable. That's the root cause of why peasants are recently coaxed out of rural homes and "forced upstairs."
Q: Late sociologist Fei Xiaotong famously summarized interpersonal relations in rural China are based on closeness of kinship. But does that still apply today, as rural China becomes more and more a place of empty nests, where children have left for the cities?
A: Fei was very clever to coin the term "pattern of different sequence," which basically means that Chinese will relate to others according to how close they are to themselves.
He used the metaphor of ripples to illustrate the sequence of closeness. The outside circles of ripples become increasingly weak. The same is true of interpersonal relations.
We haven't invented a better term. But two key premises of his sequence pattern, namely, rural society where everyone knows each other, and cozy communal ties, have significantly changed.
After 1949, rural communal ties based on kinship were disrupted by the import of class ideology. The change upset the original sequence or hierarchy. For instance, in Chinese villages the clan patriarchs were revered and asked to mediate disputes. But they were often land owners, who became declasse in land reform and were spat on by their kin.
Everyone before 1949 was bound by a sequence and acted like satellites revolving around the central authority. After 1949 farmers were lifted from that sequence to live in an atomized society. With the advent of market economy, rural China is disappearing. So Fei's observations of kinship ties may not always apply except in daily etiquette.
But even as individualism grows in China, which resembles the West, Chinese are still different from Westerners.
This is obvious in the enforcement of leases. In the West, contracts are signed and enforced sans emotion. In China it's a different story.
Suppose I lease out 5 mu of land to you at 600 yuan(US$94) per mu annually.
You in turn lease the plot to others and earn 5,000 yuan a year. I would think it's not fair and try to harass you into sharing the benefits.
This may be unthinkable to foreigners, but this is how Chinese are.
That's why I think the rule of law will mutate and adapt to Chinese reality, rather than copy the Western model. Because Chinese are atomized individuals enmeshed in guanxi. The practice of law cannot be totally insulated from the curiosities of guanxi.
Q: Since even vivid history on display in museums often attracts few visitors, how can scholarly works like yours be accessible to ordinary people?
A: Yes, scholarly works are often jargon-heavy and esoteric, but they occasionally need to cater to general readers.
I've done numerous interviews in rural Haining, which I think are more incisive than similar interviews by many other scholars.
I intend to dispel several stereotypes about peasants, that their life is tedious, drab and dull. Actually peasants' life can be every bit as colorful and exciting as urban dwellers.
Alas, we don't yet have books that vividly capture the nuts-and-bolts changes of rural life. We need more details.
Looking at details, you will marvel at the sea change of our life within just half a century. I once interviewed an old woman in Haining.
She was married in the late 1940s to a man she had only seen in photos.
And on the wedding day the bridegroom turned out to be somebody else. The photos given her were wrong.
Often such intriguing stories fail to be heard. This lacunae has inspired me to consider writing a series of general-interest books on real life.
Q: Many lament the demise of rural China due to rapid urbanization. Is Haining losing its rural scenery and spirit and experiencing land grabs?
A: To begin with, we cannot return to the idyllic past. Rural life is now undesirable, even for the young children of peasants. Thus, urban sprawl will further shrink the countryside.
But how fast should urbanization go?
If the government hastily pushes it, we'll hear more often of peasants being "forced upstairs" after their land is seized for development.
Not all peasants are willing to swap native homes for new life in cities. Some local governments have strained ties with farmers because they sacrifice people's concerns over economic growth. They still regard growth as the panacea for all problems.
Governments have built factories, some heavily polluting, that people never want.
In Haining, where rural family income averages tens of thousands of yuan a year, peasants find construction of industrial plants in the midst of their homes not just meaningless, but also potentially dangerous.
Nonetheless, all levels of government are still enslaved to the GDP fetish. To perpetuate economic growth, they need more land. Where does it come from?
As China is determined to protect 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) of arable land, governments now covet the land on which peasants' houses sit. It is tradable. That's the root cause of why peasants are recently coaxed out of rural homes and "forced upstairs."
Q: Late sociologist Fei Xiaotong famously summarized interpersonal relations in rural China are based on closeness of kinship. But does that still apply today, as rural China becomes more and more a place of empty nests, where children have left for the cities?
A: Fei was very clever to coin the term "pattern of different sequence," which basically means that Chinese will relate to others according to how close they are to themselves.
He used the metaphor of ripples to illustrate the sequence of closeness. The outside circles of ripples become increasingly weak. The same is true of interpersonal relations.
We haven't invented a better term. But two key premises of his sequence pattern, namely, rural society where everyone knows each other, and cozy communal ties, have significantly changed.
After 1949, rural communal ties based on kinship were disrupted by the import of class ideology. The change upset the original sequence or hierarchy. For instance, in Chinese villages the clan patriarchs were revered and asked to mediate disputes. But they were often land owners, who became declasse in land reform and were spat on by their kin.
Everyone before 1949 was bound by a sequence and acted like satellites revolving around the central authority. After 1949 farmers were lifted from that sequence to live in an atomized society. With the advent of market economy, rural China is disappearing. So Fei's observations of kinship ties may not always apply except in daily etiquette.
But even as individualism grows in China, which resembles the West, Chinese are still different from Westerners.
This is obvious in the enforcement of leases. In the West, contracts are signed and enforced sans emotion. In China it's a different story.
Suppose I lease out 5 mu of land to you at 600 yuan(US$94) per mu annually.
You in turn lease the plot to others and earn 5,000 yuan a year. I would think it's not fair and try to harass you into sharing the benefits.
This may be unthinkable to foreigners, but this is how Chinese are.
That's why I think the rule of law will mutate and adapt to Chinese reality, rather than copy the Western model. Because Chinese are atomized individuals enmeshed in guanxi. The practice of law cannot be totally insulated from the curiosities of guanxi.
Q: Since even vivid history on display in museums often attracts few visitors, how can scholarly works like yours be accessible to ordinary people?
A: Yes, scholarly works are often jargon-heavy and esoteric, but they occasionally need to cater to general readers.
I've done numerous interviews in rural Haining, which I think are more incisive than similar interviews by many other scholars.
I intend to dispel several stereotypes about peasants, that their life is tedious, drab and dull. Actually peasants' life can be every bit as colorful and exciting as urban dwellers.
Alas, we don't yet have books that vividly capture the nuts-and-bolts changes of rural life. We need more details.
Looking at details, you will marvel at the sea change of our life within just half a century. I once interviewed an old woman in Haining.
She was married in the late 1940s to a man she had only seen in photos.
And on the wedding day the bridegroom turned out to be somebody else. The photos given her were wrong.
Often such intriguing stories fail to be heard. This lacunae has inspired me to consider writing a series of general-interest books on real life.
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