Village integrated into the grassland

Author: Su Hao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: This academic work is based on an investigation conducted in the Zhanjiangying Administrative Village of Tuoketuo County, Hohhot City, Inner Mongolia. It represents a case study research on the transformation of rural social structures and economic development using sociological theoretical methods. The book provides an in-depth, systematic, and detailed description of the historical evolution, economic development, cultural education, family structures, ethnic demographics, customs, and other aspects of Zhanjiangying Administrative Village. It also analyzes household questionnaire surveys and explores practical issues in rural socio-economics. This book is suitable for reference.
The Industrial Structure and Changes in Zhanjiangying Village
During the period from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the production structure of Zhanjiangying Village underwent changes. Wool weaving was the traditional industry of Zhanjiangying Village, with wool as the raw material. The process of wool weaving involved several steps, including selection, cleaning, squeezing, and pressing, ultimately forming products similar to (mats). These could be considered either woolen cushions or rough rugs.
Zhanjiangying Village had the Qiao and Liu families, who were handcrafters specializing in wool weaving. Their techniques were passed down through generations, with refined craftsmanship and well-pressed, high-quality products that were highly favored by people at the time, especially by Mongolian herders.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the rural living conditions in the Tumochuan region were very backward, and people generally could not afford the necessary woolen products. Market consumption had reached a state of poverty-induced saturation. The wool weavers of Zhanjiangying Village were unwilling to abandon their craft and began seeking markets in more distant places. Some weavers discovered that the Mongolian herders living in the faraway Xilamuren Grassland showed great interest in woolen products. Thus, they left Zhanjiangying Village and moved to Xilamuren Grassland. Through hard labor and long-term interactions with the Mongolian people, they established harmonious relationships and friendships.
The Mongolian people are the primary users of woolen products. Due to the nomadic nature of their production methods, which involves migrating with the seasons and pastures, they could not build permanent housing in one place. This led to the formation of the yurt, a portable dwelling. The main material for making yurts is woolen felt.
Some craftsmen from Zhanjiangying Village seized this market opportunity and continued to sustain their livelihoods through wool weaving. They not only produced woolen products around Hohhot City but also traveled to places like the Azga Banner and the Damu Banner. The abundance of wool in the pastoral areas provided the raw materials for wool weaving, while the high demand for woolen products offered them a chance to thrive. However, only a few families were able to process woolen products in the pastoral areas, including Qiao Zhanquan’s father, Qiao Gen, and Liu Dengji’s father, San Haiqing.
As the number of handcraft producers gradually decreased, the production base shifted from the village to the pastoral areas, and the decline of handcrafted manufacturing compared to agricultural production became evident. These factors led many artisans in Zhanjiangying Village to abandon their wool weaving skills and focus on grain cultivation instead. At this point, the industrial structure of the village underwent changes. As a result, Zhanjiangying Village experienced a wave of land reclamation in the late Qing Dynasty, expanding its arable land. Land became the economic foundation for the survival of Zhanjiangying Village.
After the late Qing Dynasty, agriculture became the primary source of income for most villagers, making it the "lifeline" of their survival. Only a few wool weavers managed to preserve their ancestral craft until the 1980s.
Before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, despite extremely difficult living conditions, the per capita cultivated land area was relatively large, even larger than in some regions of Inner Mongolia. According to the elders of Zhanjiangying Village, most families owned about 20 acres of farmland, with some having as much as 40 acres. However, the practice was mostly extensive farming, with a focus on coarse grains like millet, broomcorn, sorghum, and beans, yielding about 50 pounds of grain per acre, barely enough for consumption.
Of course, farmers completely reliant on land were equally dependent on nature. To pray for annual harvests, villagers built the Dragon King Temple in the southern part of the village to bless their crops.
The land in Zhanjiangying Village is relatively flat, and from the northwest, one can see the spectacular sight of the sun setting on the horizon. This landscape suggests that the land is highly suitable for agricultural development.
Despite this arable land, the agricultural production of Zhanjiangying Village did not undergo significant changes after the late Qing Dynasty. It was not until the early 1990s, with the introduction of dairy farming, that the production structure of Zhanjiangying Village began to change.
By 2002, there were 113 dairy farming households, accounting for 51.6% of the households surveyed. The development of dairy farming and the gradual increase in dairy farming households promoted the growth of corn cultivation, with the planting area of corn expanding continuously. Corn stalks and corn became the main feed for dairy cows.
Now, over 90% of the farmland in the entire village is used to grow corn.
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