Revolution, Resistance, and Reform in Village China (Yale Agrarian Studies)

369 Pages·2007·1.39 MB·English

by  Edward Friedman

REVOLUTION,
RESISTANCE,
AND REFORM
IN VILLAGE CHINA
‘‘The Agrarian Studies Series at Yale University Press seeks to publish out-
standing and original interdisciplinary work on agriculture and rural society—
for any period, in any location. Works of daring that question existing para-
digms and fill abstract categories with the lived-experience of rural people are
especially encouraged.’’
James C. Scott, Series Editor
Christiana Payne, Toil and Plenty: Images of the Agricultural Landscape in En-
gland, ∞π∫≠–∞∫Ω≠ (∞ΩΩ≥)
Brian Donahue, Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a
New England Town (∞ΩΩΩ)
James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human
Condition Have Failed (∞ΩΩΩ)
Tamara L. Whited, Forests and Peasant Politics in Modern France (≤≠≠≠)
Nina Bhatt and James C. Scott, Agrarian Studies: Synthetic Work at the Cutting
Edge (≤≠≠∞)
Peter Boomgaard, Frontiers of Fear: Tigers and People in the Malay World, ∞∏≠≠–
∞Ω∑≠ (≤≠≠∞)
Janet Vorwald Dohner, The Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock
and Poultry Breeds (≤≠≠≤)
Deborah Fitzgerald, Every Farm a Factory: The Industrial Ideal in American
Agriculture (≤≠≠≥)
Stephen B. Brush, Farmer’s Bounty: Locating Crop Diversity in the Contemporary
World (≤≠≠∂)
Brian Donahue, The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord
(≤≠≠∂)
J. Gary Taylor and Patricia J. Scharlin, Smart Alliance: How a Global Corpora-
tion and Environmental Activists Transformed a Tarnished Brand (≤≠≠∂)
Raymond L. Bryant, Nongovernmental Organizations in Environmental Strug-
gles: Politics and the Making of Moral Capital in the Philippines (≤≠≠∑)
Edward Friedman, Paul G. Pickowicz, and Mark Selden, Revolution, Re-
sistance, and Reform in Village China (≤≠≠∑)
Michael Goldman, Imperial Nature: The World Bank and Struggles for Social
Justice in the Age of Globalization (≤≠≠∑)
Arvid Nelson, Cold War Ecology: Forests, Farms, and People in the East German
Landscape, ∞Ω∂∑–∞Ω∫Ω (≤≠≠∑)
Steve Stri√er, Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America’s Favorite Food
(≤≠≠∑)
Lynne Viola, V. P. Danilov, N. A. Ivnitskii, and Denis Kozlov (editors), The
War Against the Peasantry, ∞Ω≤π–∞Ω≥≠ (≤≠≠∑)
REVOLUTION,
RESISTANCE,
AND REFORM
IN VILLAGE CHINA
Edward Friedman
Paul G. Pickowicz
Mark Selden
Yale University Press
New Haven and London
Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of Philip
Hamilton McMillan of the Class of ∞∫Ω∂, Yale College.
Copyright ∫ ≤≠≠∑ by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in
any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections ∞≠π and ∞≠∫ of the U.S.
Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written
permission from the publishers.
Set in Galliard type by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Friedman, Edward, ∞Ω≥π–
Revolution, resistance, and reform in village China / Edward Friedman, Paul G.
Pickowicz, and Mark Selden.
p. cm. — (Yale agrarian studies series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn ≠-≥≠≠-∞≠∫Ω∏-∏ (cloth : alk. paper)
∞. Hebei Sheng (China)—Rural conditions. ≤. China—Rural conditions.
≥. Communism and agriculture—China—Hebei Sheng. ∂. Government,
Resistance to—China—Hebei Sheng. ∑. China—Politics and government—
∞Ω∂Ω– I. Pickowicz, Paul. II. Selden, Mark. III. Title. IV. Yale agrarian studies.
hnπ∂≠.h∏∏fπ∂ ≤≠≠∑
≥≠π.π≤%≠Ω∑∞%∑≤—dc≤≤
≤≠≠∑≠∂≥Ω∏∏
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on
Library Resources.
∞≠ Ω ∫ π ∏ ∑ ∂ ≥ ≤ ∞
For my mentors, Barrington Moore Jr. and Herman Epstein (EF)
For Li Huai (PGP)
For my mentors, Leo Marx and Mary C. Wright (MS)

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments / ix
∞ Prelude / ∞
≤ Back from the Brink / ∏
≥ Memory and Myth / ≤∫
∂ Socialist Education / ∂∏
∑ A Whi√ / ∑Ω
∏ Riding High /π∞
π The Stench / ∫∂
∫ Whatever Chairman Mao Says / ∞∞≤
Ω War Communism / ∞≥≤
∞≠ Sprouts of Reform / ∞∑∞
∞∞ Stalemate / ∞π∂
∞≤ Tremors / ∞Ω∫
∞≥ Earthquakes / ≤≤≤
∞∂ Reform / ≤∂≠
∞∑ Reform and Its Discontents / ≤∏≤
Appendix of Tables / ≤∫π
List of Abbreviations / ≥≠∞
Notes / ≥≠≥
Index / ≥≤≥
vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A project spanning a quarter of a century and extending from across the
United States to China, Hong Kong, and beyond entails the accumulation of
large personal debts.
We have been fortunate in having the guidance, suggestions and support of
faculty and graduate student colleagues, including Jeremy Brown, Uradyn
Bulag, Anita Chan, Joseph Esherick, Feng Chongyi, David Goodman, Peter
Ho, Li Huai, Liu Dong, Liu Yigao, Lu Aiguo, Roderick MacFarquhar, Rich-
ard Madsen, Elizabeth Perry, Stanley Rosen, Michael Schoenhals, James Scott,
Tao Heshan, Jonathan Unger, Andrew Walder, Wang Liping, Xiao Zhiwei,
Yang Yanshu, and Zhang Xianwen.
Thomas Bernstein and an anonymous reader for the Press twice provided
perceptive critical readings of the manuscript. We thank them for pulling no
punches, and we fully credit their contributions to delaying publication of a
work that was already long overdue.
We particularly express our appreciation to Cheng Tiejun, native of Rao-
yang county, Ph.D. in sociology, specialist on China’s countryside, professor
of social science at the University of Macau, and author of two forthcoming
books on Macau society, for his wise counsel over many years.
Others who assisted in our research are Cai Dongqing, Chen Peiqi, Chen
Shidong, Bestor Cram, Luo Lin, Sue Williams, Han Peng, Natasha Pic-
kowicz, Ruan Ruoshan, Ed Settles, Shih Chi-lin, Sarah Smith, Judith Vec-
chioni, Wang Zhiqiang, Yang Xiaowen, Yu Shaohua, and Zhao Zhida.
We thank the University of Wisconsin-Madison Cartographic Laboratory
and Marieka Brouwer for the preparation of the maps.
We have been the beneficiaries of the dedicated professionalism of sta√ at
our three universities, including Donna Andrews, Susan Brenneke, Angela
Finnerty, Betty Gunderson, Lisa Rhodes, Alexandra Ruiz, Susan Taniguchi,
and especially Nancy Hall and Diane Morauske, who typed and retyped drafts
of the manuscript over many years.
Binghamton University, the University of California, San Diego, and the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, supported our work over the decades,
making possible more than ≥≠ trips to Raoyang and China that provided
much of the information for this study. We thank the National Endowment
ix