The Promise of Revolution

by Wright, Daniel B.; Fewsmith, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9780742519169
• ISBN10: 0742519163
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc

Summary

This engaging book sketches compelling portraits of contemporary life in Guizhou, one of China's poorest provinces, more than fifty years after the Communist revolution promised to change the lives of the country's rural and urban dwellers. Through an exploration of local history, economic disparity, migrant labor, village life, civil society, education, poverty, local governance, enterprise reform, the rebirth of religion, and the new-found wealth of a privileged few, this perceptive study allows readers a unique glimpse into the lives and perspectives of China's hidden majority.

Author Biography

Daniel B. Wright is the executive director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Program at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Figures	ix
Foreword
David M. Lampton	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction	1	(10)
Part I Prints of the Past: Local History
1. The Paradox of Perspective: Colorful Guizhou	11	(10)
2. A Walk into the Past: Hiking the Long March	21	(10)
Part II Portraits of the Present: Interior China and the Coast
3. One in Fifty Million: On the Rails with China's Migrant Labor	31	(10)
4. "Hey Coolie!": Local Migrant Labor	41	(10)
5. Shared Prosperity?	51	(10)
6. Reason to Hope: The China Youth Development Foundation	61	(10)
Part III Portraits of the Present: Rural Life in China's Interior
7. A Day in the Life of Shui Jianhua: Report from Splendid Village	71	(10)
8. Home-Cured Tobacco: A Tale of Three Generations in Big Nest Village	81	(8)
9. They Call Me "Brother": Report from Big Nest Village	89	(6)
10. Team Water Buffalo: Report from Big Nest Village	95	(6)
11. Leading on Poverty's Front Line: The Spirit of Daguan Village	101	(10)
12. Still a Song to Sing? Modernization versus Traditional National Minority Culture	111	(8)
Part IV Portraits of the Present: Urban Issues in China's Interior
13. Coping with Reform in Guizhou's Industrial Rustbelt	119	(12)
14. Sprouts in a Hard Place: Principal Bi and the "P"-Word	131	(8)
15. "Field of Dreams": Tourism in Guizhou Province	139	(8)
16. Golfing in Guiyang: Playing with Guizhou's Affluent	147	(8)
Part V Promises, Promises: China's Inadequate Revolution
17. Matters of the Heart ... The Rebirth of Religion	155	(10)
18. The Revolution at Fifty Years	165	(12)
Notes	177	(16)
Index	193	(6)
About the Author	199