Experience China (Taking Qicun in Zhejiang as a Case - Five Volumes in Total, Each Volume Covers One Part)

Author: Yang Jianhua (Editor-in-Chief), Xiao Lou (Co-author)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-11-01
Features: This book starts with the "social fact" of daily life itself, taking seven administrative or natural villages in Zhejiang as research cases. Through direct observation of villagers' daily lives, it traces and displays the activity patterns, internal structures, scope of practice, operational logic, historical evolution, as well as the conflicts and fragmentation, dissolution and construction of daily life. By providing detailed narratives of villagers' daily lives, it captures and portrays their basic lifestyles and changes, the trajectory of village transformation, and underlying variables such as time arrangements, spatial patterns, and basic social networks. The book is divided into five parts, each roughly consisting of historical examination, theoretical analysis, and narrative records.
Historical Examination involves a diachronic study and empirical research on the changes in non-agricultural economies, political activities, technological dissemination, clan life, and daily life in the villages over the past 50 years. Theoretical Analysis interprets and explains these historical empirical findings, providing insights into how changes in non-agricultural economies, politics, technology, clans, folk customs, and religion have influenced village development. Narrative Records are compiled from audio recordings made during interviews with villagers, presenting authentic, unfiltered oral accounts free from researchers' perspectives, academic embellishments, or logical or theoretical frameworks.
To some extent, this book showcases the social changes in Chinese villages over the past 50 years, including the processes, pathways, directions, and mechanisms of transformation. It offers a new perspective and methodology for the study of Chinese villages. The book is divided into five parts: "The Non-Agricultural Economy of the Village," "The Politics of the Village," "The Technology of the Village," "The Clan of the Village," and "The World of Village Life."