Learning About a Chinese Village in a Leninist-Party Authoritarian State

Abstract

How does one overcome the institutionalized obstacles to understanding the networks of power in the PRC which reach down in complex ways from the center to the village? There is no reason for villagers who need patrons for access to scarce resources to commit to telling the truth. There is no reason for local officials to commit to telling the truth when careers depend on pleasing higher-ups and not on revealing how patron–client networks work. After 25 years and almost three dozen visits to one rural county, certain research techniques were developed—and are described—for seeing the invisible and understanding the political context which shapes local opportunities.