North China Village Research Articles

Rural Migrants and Settlement Rights in Early Twentieth-Century Shanxi: A Study of “Class Background Registers”

Shanxi experienced a severe population shortage after the late Qing Dingwu famine. The frequent disasters and warfare of the Republican era further increased population movements in north China, and in addition to northeast China, Shanxi became a major destination for migrants. In this period over two million migrants settled in Shanxi. Those that settled in the countryside formed a unique social group of immigrant households. The kinship and territorial bonds of north Chinese villages are well known, and such villages are often considered to have been very insular and xenophobic communities. Migrant households found it difficult to join the village community, and often had no choice but to live precarious lives on the outskirts of villages. Migrant households had to acquire “settlement rights” in the village in order to have any chance of survival and development. But settlement rights could not be achieved overnight; they were not only a matter of time, but also involved certain requirements and favorable circumstances. Through a close examination of “class background registers” compiled during the Four Cleanups movement (1963–1966), this article shows how migrant households in late Qing and Republican China used famine as an opportunity to gradually acquire settlement rights. On the one hand, migrants used wage labor, tenancy, and credit to form dependent relations through land with resident households. On the other hand, they used social relations, adoption, and uxorilocal marriage to form kinship relations with resident households. Compared to south China, where village settlement rights emphasized recognition of common ancestry, settlement rights in north China villages emphasized common lived experience. This difference is an important factor in explaining rural social formation and development in north China.

Study on the Green Construction Technology and Measurement in Villages and Towns of North China

Analysis of existing problems in green construction in villages and towns of North China, combined with the green construction techniques and experience in Shijiatong village demonstration plot, green construction principles and technique measure which apply to the villages and towns of North China are proposed. Suggestions on speeding up green construction technology in North China villages and towns.

Intergenerational Intimacy and Descending Familism in Rural North China

Based on evidence drawn from longitudinal fieldwork over three decades, in this study I unpack the complex connections among the development of intergenerational intimacy, the redefinition of filial piety, and the rise of descending familism in a north China village. In the first section, I discuss the structural and functional solidarity in intergenerational relationships by examining changing patterns in household composition. Next I show that villagers have redefined the norms of filial piety by relinquishing unconditional obedience and submission from the junior to the senior generations, thus paving the way to intergenerational intimacy. In the third section, I take a closer look at the practices of intergenerational intimacy, the special role played by married women, and the blurring of the boundaries between intimacy and privacy. Next I offer a brief account of macrolevel social factors that render intergenerational intimacy important in family life and result in the rise of descending familism. I conclude by placing the case study in a comparative context and exploring the implications of intergenerational intimacy and descending familism beyond the village community.

北方农村老年人 “轮养” 方式研究—基于河北调查 数据

Abstract In multi-child families, lunyang (different children taking turns to provide support) for aged parents or single parents has been a form of family old-age support since ancient times. Based on the survey I carried out in 2008 in three villages respectively located in Zhao county (south central Hebei), Fengrun district of Tangshan county (East Hebei), and Chicheng county (Northwest Hebei), this article intends to achieve a comprehensive understanding of lunyang, a form of old-age support in North China villages, through statistical analysis. According to this research, 13.30% of the elderly people older than 60 in the surveyed villages were under care rotation. Regionally, Fengrun district had the highest level of lunyang, where over 20% of the surveyed elderly people lived by lunyang. In comparison, the elderly people under lunyang numbered 13.45% in Zhao county and only 3.55% in Chicheng county. In terms of age group, more than 30% of the surveyed elderly people older than 80 in Zhao county and Fengrun district were under lunyang. From the perspective of lunyang’s form, the portion of the singles under lunyang amounted to more than 70%. In other words, widowed elderly constituted the main part of lunyang. Couples under lunyang numbered less than 30%. The mainstream practice was for the different children to provide both meals and accommodation in turn, accounting for 70% of the cases of lunyang. However, the practice of meal rotation only increased among elderly people older than 80, accounting for over 30%. The practice of accommodation rotation only accounted for slightly more than 10%, and concentrated on people younger than 70. In most cases, the duration of the cycle for lunyang ranged from 1 month to 1 year, and the cycle of 1 month and 1 year accounted for more than 60%. In terms of control over resources for survival, only 10% of elderly people under lunyang owned their residence, and the overwhelming majority of them relied on their children to provide living expenses, showing the weak control of elderly people under rotation over survival resources and their rigid dependency on their children for old-age support. (This article is in Chinese.) 摘要 有多子的年老父母或单亲以 “轮养” 方式被赡养是一项古已有之的家庭养老做法。本文以 2008 年笔者在冀中南赵县、冀东唐山市丰润区和冀西北赤城县三个村庄所作问卷调查为基础，对 “轮养” 行为进行统计分析，试图比较全面地认识北方农村这一养老模式。根据本项研究，调查村庄 60 岁以上受访老年人被 “轮养”比例为 13.30%。 其中，丰润区 “轮养” 水平最高，超过 20% 的受访老年人以 “轮养” 方式生活，赵县为 13.45%，赤城县则只有 3.55%。分年龄组看，赵县和丰润区 80 岁以上受访老年人被 “轮养” 者超过 30%。从轮养形式看，丧偶单亲被 “轮养” 占 70% 多，夫妇被 “轮养” 不足 30%。轮吃轮住方式约占 70%；80 岁以上老年人轮吃不轮住增加，超过 30%；轮住不轮吃只占 10% 多一点，集中于 70 岁以下低龄老年组。“轮养” 周期多为 1 个月至一年之间，其中 1 个月和 1 年这两种 “轮养” 形式超过 60%。从生存资源的掌握上看，“轮养” 老年人有自己产权住房的比例只占 10%，绝大多数 “轮养” 老年人由子女提供生活费用。 被 “轮养” 老年人资源支配能力很弱，是亲代对子代养老具有刚性依赖的表现。

Rethinking Missionaries and Medicine in China: The Miracles of Assunta Pallotta, 1905–2005

This paper uses the cult of Assunta Pallotta, an Italian Catholic nun who died in a north China village in 1905, to critique the existing literature on missionary medicine in China. She was recognized as holy because of the fragrance that accompanied her death, and later the incorrupt state of her body, and her relics were promoted as a source of healing by the Catholic mission hospital, absorbed into local folk medicine, and are still in use today. By focusing on Catholics, not Protestants, and women, not men, the paper suggests similarities between European and Chinese traditional religious and medical cultures and argues that instead of seeing a transfer of European biomedicine to China, we need to think of a single globalized process in which concepts of science and religion, China and the West were framed.

The Travails of the Ninth Dragon God: The Struggle for Water, Worship, and the Politics of Getting By in a North China Village

This paper examines villagers' efforts to secure a reliable supply of drinking water in Ten Mile Inn, a rural community in North China. For most village residents, the Maoist era was a period of attacks on their religious beliefs and practices. It was also a time of often costly attempts to secure a more reliable supply of water. Village politics and factional disputes attended all these efforts and closely track the rise, fall, and ultimate reinstatement of the Ninth Dragon God, an important deity in Chinese pantheon, who many believe has full charge of rainwater, rivers, lakes, and seas. Those associated with the god constitute a source of authority and respect in addition to that of local state sanctioned leaders.

Power, Entitlement and Social Practice: Resource Distribution in North China Villages (review)

Power, Entitlement and Social Practice: Resource Distribution in North China Villages (review)

Power to the People? Villagers' self-rule in a North China village from the locals' point of view

This article examines ethnographically the implementation of the Organic Law and practice of ‘villagers’ self-rule' in a North China village from 2003 to 2004. Based on in-depth interviews and participant observation, it recounts the election of a villagers' committee and the functioning of a ‘democratic supervisory small group’. It shows that critical disparities exist between what Chinese policymakers and many scholars argue for on the one hand (for instance, enhancing cadre accountability, empowering ordinary villagers, and promoting grassroots democracy), and how most villagers view the actual practices on the other. It concludes that the locals' negative views are not idiosyncratic, the vision of ‘rule by the people’ remains difficult to take root, and that local metaphors are resourcefully used to make sense of newly-introduced practices.

Ritual Music in a North China Village: The Continuing Confucian and Buddhist Heritage

Ritual Music in a North China Village: The Continuing Confucian and Buddhist Heritage

Marketization, Democratization, and Women's Participation in Village Elections in Contemporary Rural China: A Study of a North China Village

ABSTRACT This research attempts to understand women and politics in the context of market reforms and democratic elections in a rural Chinese village. More specifically, it examines how marketization, which started in 1978, and democratization, which was initiated in 1987, together have influenced women's participation in local village elections. Based on qualitative information collected from interviews and focus groups conducted over a three-year period between 2002 and 2004, it is evident that although women's political participation is strong, there is gender inequality in political participation at this grassroots level. Further, political participation is mediated by interactions between the state, the community, and individual families.

Marginalization of Childless Elderly Men and Welfare Provision: a study in a North China village

Rural reforms have benefited certain groups and marginalized others, creating great disparity in rural China. The welfare situation of childless elderly men, mostly never married, remains little known and largely unnoticed. This study enquires preliminarily into the question of how childless elderly men cope with the changing economic, political, and institutional contexts brought about by the market reforms that started in 1978. With the adoption of a political economy approach to the analysis of welfare resources allocation, and an institutional approach to the analysis of changes in welfare institutions and individual lives, this paper looks into various roles of the state, community, and family in welfare production. The in-depth village study suggests that though the state, community, and family are expected to care for the needy, neither formal nor informal assistance from the community or extended families to the childless elderly is necessarily sufficient, automatic, or forthcoming. Collective land and housing plots seem to be the only resources that the childless elderly have to exchange for care.

The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man’s Life in a North China Village, 1857–1942

Book Review| April 01 2007 The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man’s Life in a North China Village, 1857–1942 The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man’s Life in a North China Village, 1857–1942. Henrietta Harrison. Roger Thompson Roger Thompson Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Agricultural History (2007) 81 (2): 283–285. https://doi.org/10.1215/00021482-81.2.283 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Roger Thompson; The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man’s Life in a North China Village, 1857–1942. Agricultural History 1 January 2007; 81 (2): 283–285. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00021482-81.2.283 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsAgricultural History Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2007 Agricultural History Society2007 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village 1857-1942. Henrietta Harrison

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsThe Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village 1857-1942. Henrietta Harrison Peter J. SeyboltPeter J. Seybolt Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The China Journal Volume 55Jan., 2006 Published on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/20066147 Views: 77Total views on this site Copyright The China JournalPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

:The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village, 1857–1942

The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village 1857-1942, by Henrietta Harrison. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2005. xii + 207 pp. US$40.00 (hardcover), US$16.95 (paperback). This is a wonderful book, which I recommend highly for use in a variety of academic courses on Chinese history and culture as well as for general reading pleasure. By concentrating on the life of a single individual, Henrietta Harrison has significantly enhanced our understanding of Chinese history and culture in general during a critical period of transition. Her book is a splendid example of the value of studying particular individuals, areas and events to expand, refine and enliven the relatively abstract generalizations of more broadly based studies. The "man awakened from dreams" in the title is Liu Dapeng, an impoverished scholar living in a small village in Shanxi Province in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We learn about him principally from his voluminous writings-more than 400 handwritten volumes, including a diary, an autobiography, a local gazetteer, travel observations, a plan for local flood defenses, a collection of local superstitions, a family genealogy, family regulations, essays on various topics and many volumes of poetry. Harrison has judiciously used these materials, as well as interviews with Liu's descendents, local records and numerous other sources, to draw us into Liu's world. Liu Dapeng was not a typical example of his time or place ("Real people are never typical" p. 7); rather, he provides a striking example of idealized Confucian rectitude and propriety. He thought of himself as an exemplar of Confucian values and earned the respect of his neighbors for his honesty and sense of justice. But his Confucian thought and behavior were not sufficient qualifications for the appointment to government office to which he aspired; he considered himself a failure for never having passed the national civil service examinations, though he was one of a very select few who succeeded in county and provincial examinations, becoming a member of the lower gentry class. In his determination to lead a Confucian life, adherence to traditional expectations of filial behavior was Liu's foremost concern. He continually chided himself for caring insufficiently for his parents and ancestors, to the unrealistic (and unwittingly egotistical) extent that he was convinced that natural disasters, such as floods, drought, and personal tragedies like the death of a child were Heaven's retribution for his personal moral failings. As a Confucian exemplar, Liu had enormous respect for tradition and great distrust for the "modernization" efforts that characterized the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican period in which he lived. He felt increasingly isolated after the revolution of 1911, writing in his journal: "Everyone is for the reforms, and I alone hold to the old ways. Everyone is destroying the bonds of relationships, and I alone hold to principles" (p. 93). He felt that concepts of democracy and progress then in vogue threatened the essential moral foundation of society, though ineluctably he was forced to make concessions to the times and participate, albeit peripherally, in the process of change he abhorred. …

THE INDIVIDUAL AND TRANSFORMATION OF BRIDEWEALTH IN RURAL NORTH CHINA

Drawing on data collected from longitudinal fieldwork, this article explores how the practice of bridewealth in a north China village has been transformed into a new form of property division within the groom's family and how the bride has replaced her parents as the recipient of bridewealth. At the individual level, this transformation has evolved through a long process during which individual brides and grooms negotiated with their parents over control of bridewealth. A misunderstanding about Western individualism provides village youths with a new ideological tool to justify their relentless extraction of money from their parents. At the level of family life, the changing norm of bridewealth has shaped and in turn has helped to re‐shape mate choice, family division, and support for the elderly. These family changes occurred within the context of other social changes at the macro level and are closely linked to the role of the powerful state. While emphasizing the active role of the individual in transforming the practice of bridewealth, an important phenomenon that by and large has been overlooked in most studies of marriage transactions, the article also examines the specific strategies by which individuals exercise their agency, choosing to take advantage of the custom of bridewealth instead of abandoning it when it affords them greater autonomy in mate choice and marriage negotiations.

The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village, 1857-1942 (review)

The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village, 1857-1942 (review)

Economic Reforms and Fertility Behaviour: A Study of a North China Village. Zhang Weiguo

<i>Economic Reforms and Fertility Behaviour: A Study of a North China Village</i>. Zhang Weiguo

The Cult of the Silkworm Mother as a Core of Local Community Religion in a North China Village: Field Study in Zhiwuying, Boading, Hebei

This article deals with an example of local community religion in north China, the activities of a woman spirit-medium in a small village in Hebei province. This woman is believed to represent an ancient goddess, the Silkworm Mother (Cangu nainai), to whom people turn for healing illnesses not cured by Western or Chinese medicine. This study shows that local popular religion is very much alive in contemporary China.

Book Review: Chinese Economic Reforms and Fertility Behaviour. A Study of a North China Village

Book Review: Chinese Economic Reforms and Fertility Behaviour. A Study of a North China Village

Courtship, Love and Premarital Sex in a North China Village

Previous articleNext article No AccessCourtship, Love and Premarital Sex in a North China VillageYunxiang YanYunxiang Yan Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The China Journal Volume 48Jul., 2002 Published on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/3182440 Views: 136Total views on this site Citations: 19Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 2002 The China JournalPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Jean-Baptiste Pettier “A question of bank notes, cars, and houses!” Matchmaking and the Moral Economy of Love in Urban China, Comparative Studies in Society and History 64, no.22 (Feb 2022): 510–536.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417521000499Bas van Leeuwen, Jieli Li Woman among women: Female agency in traditional Chinese households, circa 1947, Asia and the Global Economy 2, no.11 (Jan 2022): 100025.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aglobe.2022.100025Pierre Miège Migration, urbanisation and emergence of the individual: Same‐sex desiring migrant men constructing spaces and cultivating their self in a big Chinese city, Asia Pacific Viewpoint 61, no.33 (Jun 2020): 509–520.https://doi.org/10.1111/apv.12281Martin King Whyte Confronting puzzles in understanding Chinese family change: A personal reflection, Chinese Journal of Sociology 6, no.33 (Jul 2020): 339–363.https://doi.org/10.1177/2057150X20941363Kim Qinzi Xu Évolutions et déterminants de la primo-nuptialité en République populaire de Chine : une perspective historique, Population Vol. 74, no.33 (Oct 2019): 219–250.https://doi.org/10.3917/popu.1903.0219Rob J. Gruijters, John Ermisch Patrilocal, Matrilocal, or Neolocal? Intergenerational Proximity of Married Couples in China, Journal of Marriage and Family 81, no.33 (Oct 2018): 549–566.https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12538Anning Hu, Xiaogang Wu Parental Education and College Students' Attitudes Toward Love: Survey Evidence From China, Journal of Marriage and Family 81, no.33 (Mar 2019): 584–600.https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12561Xu Liu, David Burnett Anthropological Themes, (Mar 2019): 163–183.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3774-1_12Thomas Talhelm, Shigehiro Oishi Culture and Ecology, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2018).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3199630Yang Hu Sex Ideologies in China: Examining Interprovince Differences, The Journal of Sex Research 53, no.99 (Feb 2016): 1118–1130.https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2015.1137272Yang Hu Disentangling Gender and Ethnicity in Ethnic Intermarriage, (Jul 2016): 55–85.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29281-6_3Yang Hu A World Inverted, (Jul 2016): 191–210.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29281-6_7Belinda Campos What is the Role of Culture in the Association of Relationships with Health?, Social and Personality Psychology Compass 9, no.1212 (Dec 2015): 661–677.https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12226Lige Liu, Xiaoyi Jin, Melissa J. Brown, Marcus W. Feldman Le célibat masculin involontaire en Chine rurale : une approche par le réseau social, Population Vol. 69, no.11 (Jun 2014): 109–133.https://doi.org/10.3917/popu.1401.0109Belinda Campos, Sharon Shenhav Relationships in Multicultural Contexts, (Feb 2014): 93–105.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8654-6_7Weiguo Zhang Class Categories and Marriage Patterns in Rural China in the Mao Era, Modern China 39, no.44 (Jan 2013): 438–471.https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700412471443Shelley Clark, Caroline Kabiru, Rohini Mathur Relationship Transitions Among Youth in Urban Kenya, Journal of Marriage and Family 72, no.11 (Feb 2010): 73–88.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2009.00684.xSara L. Friedman The intimacy of state power: Marriage, liberation, and socialist subjects in southeastern China, American Ethnologist 32, no.22 (Jan 2008): 312–327.https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.2005.32.2.312Gail Hershatter State of the Field: Women in China's Long Twentieth Century, The Journal of Asian Studies 63, no.44 (Mar 2007): 991–1065.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911804002396