Special Issue: Studies of the Three Critical Issues in Rural China Introduction

The “three critical issues of rural China(the issues of rural areas, the farmer, andagriculture)” have become so serious that theyattract great concern from all sectors ofsociety. On the one hand, involvement in thediscussion is not confined to scholars, stillless to specialists in a particular discipline.Even the central government leadership hastaken an interest in some of these debates.On the other hand, existing research not onlyproduces many points of growth in terms ofknowledge, but ha…     

Changes in Gender Structure During the Process of De-agriculturalization in Rural Areas South of the Changjiang River

I. BackgroundSince the 1980s China has been experiencing a rapid transformationin rural areas brought about by de-agriculturalization. Non-farm producein the rural areas in Jiangsu, a province with a high degree of deagriculturalization, accounted for 85% of the total social product of theseareas in 1995. In southern Jiangsu, e. g., Wuxi prefecture, the figurewas as high as 96. 1%. 1 Non-farm industries have replaced traditionalagriculture as the leading industries in rural areas.The proces…     

Investigation and Analysis of the Current Medical Health Service in Rural Areas

In order to know more about currentmedical health service conditions, the ProjectGroup of Medical Health Security and Fund-raising in Rural China set up by the Develop-ment Research Center under the State Coun-cil organized a large-scale field investigationin 2004. The investigation did not utilize ran-dom samples, but can still reflect to a verygreat extent the actual medical health condi-tions at present in the rural areas.1. Medical health institutions arestill backward in rural areas(…     

Designing the Financing System of the New-type Cooperative Medi-cal Service in Rural Areas

A total of 310 counties (and county-levelcities) in 30 provinces, autonomous regionsand municipalities directly under the centralgovernment in China had conducted experi-ments of new-type cooperative medical ser-vice in the rural areas by October 2004, cov-ering 95.04 million rural people. The actualnumber of peasants who joined the serviceis 68. 99 million, accounting for 72.6% ofthe total, and 3.021 billion yuan was raised.1. The general principles of financingcooperative medical services in…     

The State and Farmers: Definition of Roles and Functions in the Supply of Public Goods

One of the major contradictions con- fronting Chinese rural areas today is the con- stant increase in farmers' individual needs and the equally rapid growth in their public needs on the one hand, and on the other the double shortage of private and public goods. As a low-income group, individual farmers bear too much of the burden of supplying public goods and have to put their limited funds into the production of public goods. As a result, not only have they not solved the problem of shortage of public goods,     

The Chinese Path to Rural Common Prosperity:Based on an Analysis of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Rural Demonstration Projects

Common prosperity in rural areas is integral to achieving common prosperity. This paper makes an in-depth analysis of Jiangsu and Zhejiang rural demonstration projects from a state-society interaction perspective. Pathway analysis is based on the framework of “high-level promotion-endogenous development” linked by the advancement of the building of the Communist Party of China and the Party’s leading role: high-level promotion, through multi-level responsibilization, ensures policy implementatio...     

A Study of the "Purge" of the Guomindang in Nanjing in 1927

In order to resist the measures taken by the Wuhan government to weaken their power, the Nationalists in Nanjing represented by Jiang Jieshi began in the spring of 1927 to use underworld forces to indirectly seize party and administrative power in the areas under their control. After repeated consultations with some of the founding members of the Guomindang, Jiang Jieshi, motivated by the desire to establish a separate central organ and to legitimize his own position, launched the so-called "purge" marked by the April Twelfth Massacre. After realizing     

Land Circulation:The Restruc-turing of Rural Stratification

As an important practice in the market-oriented reform of land rights in contempo-rary China’s rural areas, land circulation willnot only bring about large-scale free flowand re-combination of the factors of pro-ductions – land, labor, capital and technology,bringing into play a new and greater effec-tiveness and gains from land resources. More     

The Historic Changes Brought about by Economic Development and Reform and Fundamental Transformation of the Growth Mode

What historical stage has Chinese economic development reached and what are the outstanding features of this stage? In terms of both quantitative and qualitative economic indicators, China's economic development is now in a stage of transition from a developing country with a below-av- erage per capita income to one with an average per capita income.     

A Preliminary Study of the Floods and Droughts in the Three Gorges Since the Qing Dynasty

Sanxia or the Three Gorges refers to the final section of the upperreaches of the Yangtze River, an area covering seven counties inChongqing and Hubei,namely, Fengjie, Wushan, Wuxi (Daning in theQing dynasty), Badong, Zigui (Guizhou in the Qing dynasty), Xingshanand Yichang. The first three counties belonged to Kuizhou Prefecture inSichuan (the capital of which was today's Fengjie in Chongqing), whilethe last four belonged to Yichang Prefecture in Hubei (the capital ofwhich was today'…     

An Analysis of Social Security under the Planned Economy

When Chinese researchers discuss reform of social security policies,they often focus on restructuring old-age pensions and medical insurancefor workers in state-owned enterprises. This has become the onlyperspective from which they review the emergence and drawbacks of theexisting system when redesigning the social security programs for China'surban areas, with reference to the developed and other developingnations. In fact, the social security system under the planned economywas established w…     

Buddha Images on Coin-growing Trees Excavated in Sichuan Prov-ince and the Utensils Unearthed from the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze

Up to now, the earliest Buddhist statuesfrom the South that are known to us appearin the tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220AD) and Shu-Han regime (221-263AD)in today’s Sichuan Province. One kind wasfirst discovered in 1940 above the door andat the lintel of the door in the back room ofthe cliff tombs in Mahao and Shiziwan inLeshan areas. It shows a kind of high reliefBuddhist sculpture in the sitting posture withcircular halos, a garment draped over theshoulders, a wuwei seal in t…     

Emancipation of Women and the Equality of Obligations for Men and Women in China in the 1950s

Interviews with 80 old married people in the area of Beijing show that the emancipation of urban women in China in the 1950s was multi-layered and limited. In the wake of national liberation the broad masses of laboring women achieved, to some extent, class emancipation and cast off, in part, the domination of the authority of the husband and the yoke of traditional gender-based roles. They were inspired by a sense of being masters of the country and marched a step further along the road of individual freedom and development. However, like the women's liberation movement in modern times the emancipation of urban women in     

Safeguarding the Lives of the Elderly and Their Dependence on the Community─Results of a Survey Conducted in the Nankai District of Tianjin

I. Purpose and Elements of the SurveyThe survey in the Nankai district of Tianjin city was designed toinvestigate the various safeguards for elderly people sixty-five years orabove, their demands in this respect, the ways for individuals, familiesand communities to satisfy these demands, and to analyze problemsrelated to the improvement of the quality of life of elderly people so as toprovide a basis for the government to make relevant policies.The survey covered mainly the safeguards for el…     

Changes in the Model of Social Prevention of AIDS in China

China has adopted a series of new decisions and important measures against AIDS since 2003 and tactics seen by the international community as effective in reducing the risk of AIDS are also beginning to receive policy support from the Chinese government. However, we need further investigation of     

Rural Work Force Flowing: A Unique Mode of Urbanization in China

From late l 997.we conducted a four.year study of the rural work force backflow in Anhui and Sichuan provinces.which     

The Role and Functions of the Subconscious in Cognition

The subconscious, of which man is not directly aware, always playsa role, together with consciousness, in the formation and development ofthought. It is a special element in the entire process of thought since itreflects both the biological and social attributes of man. There have beena large number of studies on the subconscious, but most of them haveapproached it from a psychological angle in terms of instinct, sexualdeterminism and irrationality, and the field is confused and problematic.I …     

Is Globalization in Favor of Socialism?

There is a viewpoint that claims that, in essence, globalization is the globalization of capitalism, or a new stage of the capitalistic development. Hence, the overall situation would not appear to favor socialism. This     

The Administrative Impact of Smallpox in the Early Years of the Qing Dynasty and Measures Adopted by the Qing Court

History is a theatrical stage fraught withhuman activities. The formation of a histori-cal phenomenon not only comes from thepeople’s social activities, but also results fromthe interaction of various factors, includingnatural factors such as plagues. In the earlyQing, a smallpox epidemic had become asevere annoyance to the Qing government.During winter and spring when epidemicsran out of control, the Manchu emperorssuch as Huangtaiji (reigned 1627-1644) andShunzhi (reigned 1644-1662) had t…     

A Discussion on the Relationship between Confucianism and Industrialization in East Asia

There was once a period during its thousands of years of development when Confucianism influenced East Asia extensively and profoundlyas a major cultural element. This fact obviously played a role in theshaping of East Asian industrialization. Yet it is still open to questionwhether Confucianism is a crucial variable that provides a motive forcefor the economic miracle in East Asia, as some people believe. In thisarticle I will discuss the conditions under which and the ways thatConfuciani…