Moral Politics in a South Chinese Village: Responsibility, Reciprocity, and Resistance

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Rowman & Littlefield, 2003 - 287 páginas
Exploring sensitive issues often hidden to outsiders, this engaging study traces the transformation and economic development of a south China village during the first tumultuous decade of reform. Drawing on a wealth of intimate detail, Ku explores the new sense of risk and mood of insecurity experienced in the post-reform era in Ku Village, a typical hamlet beyond the margins of richer suburban areas or fertile farmland. Villagers' dissatisfaction revolves around three key issues: the rising cost of living, mounting agricultural expenses, and the forcible implementation of birth-control quotas. Faced with these daunting problems, villagers have developed an array of strategies. Their weapons include resisting policies they consider unreasonable by disregarding fees, evading taxes, and ignoring strict family planning regulations; challenging the rationale of official policies and the legitimacy of the local government and its officials; and reestablishing clan associations to supercede local Party authority. Using lively everyday narratives and compelling personal stories, Ku argues that rural people are not in fact powerless and passive; instead they have their own moral system that informs their everyday family lives, work, and political activities. Their code embodies concepts of fairness and justice, a concrete definition of the relationship between the state and its citizens, an understanding of the boundaries and responsibilities of each party, and a clear notion of what constitutes good and bad government and officials. On the basis of these principles, they may challenge existing policies and deny the authority of officials and the government, thereby legitimizing their acts of self-defense. Through his richly realized ethnography, Ku shows the reader a world of memorable, fully realized individuals striving to control their fate in an often arbitrary world.

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Contenido

Staying in the Village Exploring the World of Renqing Guanxi
17
We Hakkas are real han our ancestors came from the Central Plain
19
Ku Village is such a good place with good mountains and good water
23
Natural geography brings our village good fengshui
29
This is a word of renqing guanxi
32
Talking the Past Making History
45
The Communist army came to our village
49
They said poor people had turned over
53
Expressing Discontent Carrying Out Resistance
155
Nowadays there are more and more taxes
157
This is a double taxation
159
Money is in our pocket Nobody can get it
164
The Communist Party is excellent at naming
169
The river is ours
174
Paying the Price Getting a Son
179
A couple has the duty and obligation to carry out family planning
181

The situation was at its worst many died of starvation
56
The were local emperors
61
This was a period of chaos
67
Planting the Pomelo Walking Away from Poverty
75
Villagers suffer poverty throughout their lives
78
Pomelo is our golden fruit
84
All day every day is almost the same in the village
91
What do farmers rely on? A piece of land and two hands
95
I prefer life in the village
101
It was the way to achieve security
104
Practicing Democracy Losing Legitimacy
111
It is just old wine in a new bottle
112
Our authority cannot be compared with before
116
The game of the Communist Party can only cheat the dead
119
Defining Responsibility Negotiating Relationships
125
The government cannot cheat us any longer
128
Todays government doesnt care about us
131
The Maoist government cared for the poor and elderly
139
Cadres have to serve the people
142
They arent good leaders they lack education
146
Not bad he is the ideal candidate for a village head
150
Daughters are outsiders Spending money on them is like spilling water
183
Guerrillas of excess births are the troublemakers
188
Those about have policy those below have countermethods
195
School is for education not for birth control
199
Bypassing Government Rebuilding the Village
203
Where we have a good or bad harvest depends on the heavens
205
Never forget your roots
211
We are old Ku Village depends on you young people
216
Leaving the Village
221
Villagers as Practical Philosophers
223
The Politics of Memory
224
A Sense of Insecurity
225
Defining Zeren as Moral Politics
226
Popular Resistance in Ku Village
228
Epilogue
233
Glossary
239
Bibliography
247
Index
259
About the Author
273
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Acerca del autor (2003)

Hok Bun Ku is assistant professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His father was a native of Ku Village who left to join the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1948. Ku grew up in Hong Kong and first returned to his ancestral home in 1996.

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