Message from Clay Dube

[clay dube]

Responding to Robert -
The rural collective is largely dead. In some places, collectives still oversee some economic production, but beginning in the late 1970s, land has been assigned to households and most rural enterprises have been contracted to private managers. A lot has been written on this, but let me recommend three books:

the Potters, 1990, China's Peasants: The Anthropology of a Revolution http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/anthropology/social-and-cultural-anthropology/chinas-peasants-anthropology-revolution

Friedman, Seldon, et al, 1993, Chinese Village, Socialist State http://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?k=9780300054286

-- 2007, Revolution, Resistance, and Reform in Village China http://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9780300125955

Agriculture in the richer eastern part of China is generally done by older people and women caring for children. And in many villages near cities, it is now done by companies from poorer areas which use farmers from those areas. Most older people are still cared for at home, but nursing homes are increasing in China. When I lived in rural China in 1990-92, these were mainly caring for a handful of elderly women whose children had moved away or who did not have children. But now, so many people have migrated that this is becoming a significant industry.
edited by Clay Dube on 8/6/2016