The Spiral Road: Change in a Chinese Village Through the Eyes of a Communist Party Leader, Second Edition - Softcover

Huang Shu-min

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1478611308 ISBN 13: 9781478611301

Publisher: Waveland Press, Inc., 2013

Synopsis

"An exceptional look at contemporary rural China," stated Library Journal when The Spiral Road first appeared. The Spiral Road has since become essential reading for understanding the dramatic transformations reshaping the lives of China's peasants.

Through the eyes of Party Secretary Ye Wende, anthropologist Huang Shu-min combines a life history approach with participant observation to illustrate the path of change in a village in southeast China. Beginning with the Communist Party's rule and Mao's Great Leap Forward in the early 1950s to privatization and economic development in the 1990s, Huang's compelling work unravels turbulent events that affected individuals and families in Lin Village, including government control in peasants' daily lives.

Based on the author's continuing trips to China, the second edition provides in-depth details of the effects of change—Taiwanese investment, large-scale production, international marketing, new lifestyles—and the ongoing story of Mr. Ye: his ideas for expanding the villagers' wealth, his manipulation in establishing lucrative businesses in Lin Village, and his arrangements to secure jobs for his family members and close kin. This multidimensional account reveals the challenges of balancing traditional customs and values with vibrant changes imposed by governing authorities.

Table of Contents:

Introduction 1. Prologue 2. Family History 3. The Liberation 4. Hunger, Hunger 5. Joining the Act 6. Return Home 7. Security Head 8. Prosperous Years 9. The Breakup 10. Village Cadres 11. Village Change in the 1990s 12. Whither Lin Village?

About this title

Review:

"The author is an anthropologist. His use of the life story of a leader in this village as a field study technique yields remarkable insights into daily life and political change. There are some surprises here even for avid readers of recent Chinese history." --Booknotes

"Extremely useful and in places very profound." --American Journal of Sociology

"Huang skillfully weaves the life history of one local cadre into a coherent picture of radical change in the Chinese countryside. The first-person narrative style makes this a lively and absorbing book to read." --James L. Watson, Harvard University

About this edition

• Publisher: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1478611308
• ISBN 13: 9781478611301
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 250