Chapter 52 May Day, Jiangcun and the life of Chinese peasants

Known as "Jiangcun", Kaixiangong Village is almost the epitome of the development of the entire Chinese countryside.Kaixiangong Village is located in Qidu Town, Wujiang City, on the southeast bank of Taihu Lake in the Yangtze River Basin. It is a typical rural community in the south of the Yangtze River with agriculture and handicrafts. In his sociological masterpiece "Jiangcun Economy", Kaixiangong Village has become one of the most famous villages in China under the name of "Jiangcun". Unlike other famous villages such as Dazhai, Daqiuzhuang, Huaxi Village, etc., Kaixian Bow Village never reached ideological or economic extreme success.This makes it more representative of the general context of rural Chinese development, where land and agriculture issues, rural industrial issues, grassroots self-government issues, etc. are entangled.

In April 2003, anthropologist Fei Xiaotong visited Jiangcun for the last time.At this time Fei Xiaotong was already very old.This is the 27th time for the 94-year-old man to visit the village that is famous for him.In his book "Life of Chinese Peasants" published in the UK in 1939, he referred to Kaixiangong Village, an ordinary village located in the southeast corner of Taihu Lake, as Jiangcun. Also in April of this year, Fei Xiaotong published a paper titled "Twenty Years of Great Development in Small Towns in His Hometown".The thesis said: "In the past 20 years, I have seen the sudden emergence of township enterprises in my hometown, and the transformation of small towns from decline to prosperity; then I walked out of the 'Jiangcun' and traveled between rural areas and towns across the motherland. In actual work, I deeply felt the problems brought about by the unbalanced development among regions, and gradually came up with the concept of "regional economy". The small towns in the Suzhou area I visited are all located in the most developed economy in our country. In the Shanghai Economic Zone. Here I seem to see a pyramid-shaped economic regional structure that transcends administrative divisions. The top of the tower is surrounded by large medium-sized cities; below the medium-sized cities is a foundation composed of a large number of emerging and powerful small towns and thousands of vibrant villages. The broader and thicker the foundation, the bigger the pyramid Firm. This 'tower' is full of vitality, from the top of the tower to the base of the tower, the criss-crossing 'blood veins' extend to each grassroots unit, linking them tightly together, forming a relatively reliable modern economic area."

Later, Fei Xiaotong summarized the basic thinking lines of his own research this year, and one of the specific lines was Jiangcun—small towns—small and medium cities—an economic region centered on large and medium cities. By this time Fei Xiaotong was already the most famous and respected intellectual in China, and he even finally won the favor of an elusive fate.He himself is no longer hit and suppressed by repeated political waves. Judging from the political positions he holds, he is already in a high position.He was the vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.His every word will have a real impact on the pragmatic world both in academia and beyond.It’s just that he is no longer the young scholar he was more than 60 years ago. Wearing a long gown, tall and thin, with thick black hair, he is full of passion to understand reality and reform reality.Time changed both him and Jiangcun.His hair was almost all white and thinning, his body had long since gained weight, and his facial expression was no longer as melancholy and thoughtful as before, replaced by a hearty smile.

In this year's Jiangcun memorabilia, it is written: In February, Zhou Yuguan, secretary of the general party branch of the village, was elected as a member of the Suzhou CPPCC as a farmer's representative. In March, Zhou Yonglin, a member of the Communist Party of China and a private entrepreneur, served as the secretary of the general party branch of the village, replacing Zhou Yuguan in charge of the work of the whole village. Zhou Yuguan himself was by no means an ordinary farmer.He is also one of Jiangcun's most well-known private business owners. In 2003, the total production value of Zhou Yuguan's "Wujiang Wanda Circuit Board Co., Ltd." could reach 3 million yuan.Wang Huaibing, a scholar who visited Zhou Yuguan at that time, recorded: "More than 10 years ago, the factory was downstairs and the house was upstairs. The whole family worked together and hired three or five workers. It was a family workshop; now the factory returns to the factory and the family returns to home. , The factory building covers an area of ​​1,200 square meters, employs more than 30 workers, and operates in separate workshops. We walked into Zhou Yuguan's office and reception room, which is spacious and bright, with a total area of ​​50 to 60 square meters. Telephone, telephone, of course the owner is sitting in a boss chair that can be rotated, and there is a bathroom next to it."

In 1995, Wang Huaibing divided Jiangcun into three classes, including less than 1% of subsistence households, nearly 90% of well-off households, and five or six well-off households."Some of these well-to-do households run factories, employ about 15 people, and pay 200,000 yuan in taxes a year. They are rich in the open. Others do business abroad, or work as contractors. From the gorgeous houses, they even have 'mistresses'. He is rich, but he cannot know the inside story."There are fewer and fewer pure peasant households. When Wang Huaibing visited Jiangcun in 1990, he found that there were only five truly pure peasant households in which the entire labor force of the family was engaged in agricultural and sideline production.

In 1939, the young Fei Xiaotong wrote in "The Life of Chinese Peasants": "Due to the decline of household industries, farmers can only choose between improving products or giving up handicrafts. Improving products is not only a technology The problem is also a problem of social reorganization. If rural enterprises are not restored immediately, farmers will be forced to choose the latter. In this study, I try to show that it is not enough to simply condemn evil people such as landowners or even usurers Therefore, land reform, land reduction, rent reduction, and equalization of land rights cannot finally solve the land problem in China. This reform is necessary and urgent, because it is a necessary step to relieve the pain of the peasants, because it The peasants will be given a chance to breathe and the cause of the 'rebellion' will be ruled out. The ultimate solution to China's land problem is not to tighten the peasants' expenditure, but to increase the peasants' income. Therefore, I reiterate that the restoration of rural enterprises is fundamental measure."

The development of time is verifying Fei Xiaotong's judgment.It's just that history didn't realize this until it made a big circle. In 1935, he accidentally fell into the trap of Yao people catching tigers during his investigation in Guangxi, and he was injured, and his wife died when she went out to call for help.Sadly, Fei Xiaotong went back to China, followed his sister Fei Dasheng's advice, and went to Kaixiangong Village in Wujiang to recuperate from his injuries. It is a village in the district, 60 kilometers away from Suzhou on the Beijing-Shanghai line. My sister started her work on 'Revive the Silk Industry' here. She has been with this place for 10 years, and there is no farmer who does not trust her. By She introduced that I can get a lot of convenience."

Immediately afterwards, Fei Xiaotong got the opportunity to study abroad on a government sponsorship, and entered the London School of Economics to study anthropology.During the two-week journey from Shanghai to Venice (Fei Xiaotong was going to transfer from Venice to London), he compiled the materials of Kaixiangong Village investigation into an article.Later, under the guidance of the famous anthropologist Malinowski, he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the theme of "Jiangcun Economy".The title of the dissertation is: "Kaixian Gong, Economic Life in a Chinese Rural Area". In 1939, this doctoral dissertation was published in the UK under the title "Life of Chinese Peasants".

Subsequent China experienced the Anti-Japanese War, the Civil War, and then the founding of the Communist Party of the People's Republic of China.Fei Xiaotong stayed on the mainland. In 1956, his classmate, Geddes, a professor of anthropology at the University of Sydney in Australia, visited China and obtained Zhou Enlai's permission to visit Jiangcun. This move rekindled Fei Xiaotong's interest in Jiangcun.At the same time, Mao Zedong was calling on Chinese intellectuals to "get off the horse and look at the flowers" to understand the reality of China.Therefore, Fei Xiaotong returned to Jiangcun in April 1957.As a result, 21 years later, Fei Xiaotong returned to his conclusion in "Jiangcun Economy" that the problem of poverty in rural areas is caused by sideline jobs.

In his report "Return to Jiangcun" published in "New Observation", he constantly emphasized the importance of rural industry. "(The self-built silk reeling factory in the village) seems to have been forgotten outside, but in the village, the farmers still don't forget it. The reason is very simple, because there is a small factory in the village. The advantage is that There are too many. There are more than 80 regular workers in this small factory alone, and each person's salary is about 10 yuan per month. There are also many sporadic and temporary jobs, so that elderly women can participate. Second , this kind of small industry is equivalent to a technical school opened in the countryside, which continuously trains skilled workers. At that time, there were more than 20 places where they were sent out. Their wages are relatively high, and each person can send home more than 100 yuan a year. Thirdly, this is a cooperative silk factory. The operation method is that farmers hand in cocoons, make silk, calculate the cost, and distribute dividends according to the supply of raw materials and capital investment. It was originally a collectively owned cooperative enterprise established with the assistance of the school. On the one hand The exploitation of the merchants is eliminated, and on the other hand, the farmers get the benefits in the silk reeling process. The sum of these many aspects increases the farmers' income significantly”;

"A question raised here, I think, is of great significance. Is it possible and necessary for such small-scale light industrial factories to be established in rural areas, that is, in places where raw materials are produced? I also have some thoughts on this issue. Because 21 years ago I saw the benefits of this kind of small factory in improving the rural economy, and I was deeply impressed. Therefore, I wrote many articles before liberation, advocating the so-called 'local industry' .Maybe because I didn't explain clearly, and I overemphasized the status of this small industry in the national economy. During the thought reform, it was regarded as a bourgeois idea and was severely criticized for a while...But the proposed Regarding the issue of rural industrial land, I still think it is worth studying. Some of them, I think, are very suitable for our specific situation in China... Today, when a hundred schools of thought are contending, I have the courage to raise it again, and sincerely ask the leaders to pay attention to this issue. ". As a result, before the serialization of the article was over, Fei Xiaotong was branded as a rightist, because he "made a lot of articles attacking the Communist Party on the sideline business", "viciously accused the people's government of ignoring sideline production", and "opposed socialist industrialization".At that time, the farmers in Jiangcun lived in extreme poverty, and their children could not go to school, but went to herd sheep. In 1981, when Fei Xiaotong went to Jiangcun again, the times changed again.The sideline industry has already accounted for half of the income of farmers in Jiangcun.Social-run enterprises, known later as the "Southern Jiangsu Model", have sprouted.This year, the total output value of agriculture, sideline industry, and industry in Jiangcun reached 1.55 million yuan, of which agriculture accounted for 29.8%, sideline industry 19.1%, and industry 51.1%. Since then, Fei Xiaotong has visited Jiangcun almost every year.And he also expressed his support for the development of so-called "rural industries" in the debates about commune and brigade enterprises in the early 1980s and the several waves of economic overheating and macro-control to suppress township enterprises in 1988. At the end of his famous book "Jiangcun Economy", which was translated into Chinese and published in 1987, Fei Xiaotong wrote: "Thousands of villages, like Kaixian Gong, have in fact been destroyed by the invaders, yet in their ruins In China, internal conflicts and costly struggles will eventually come to an end. A new China will emerge from the ruins. I sincerely hope that future generations will praise us with understanding and sympathy, and face up to the problems of our time. We Only by working together, recognizing our goals, and looking to the future, can we live up to all the sacrifices and sufferings we have endured." We are still looking forward to a brand new China.