Chapter 49 New "Giant Village Economy"

In 1939, a young sociologist Fei Xiaotong lived in Jiangcun, Jiangsu for more than two months. His famous book "Jiangcun Economics", which was first published in English and then translated into Chinese, became the first humanistic work on the changes in China's countryside in this century.There is an incisive statement in the book that is often quoted by latecomers: "China has never been a purely agricultural country, but has always had a fairly developed industry. However, traditional industries are not concentrated in cities, but scattered in countless villages, so they are rural industries..."

It is a pity that for thousands of years, these industries "scattered in countless villages" are just a kind of "supplementary labor" performed by farmers on the verge of starvation to make up for the lack of agricultural income.In the feudal era, when agriculture was more important than business, its existence was always insignificant.By the beginning of this century, due to the invasion of Western industry, the rural industry was on the verge of collapse. As the first Chinese scholar to observe this reality, Fei Xiaotong exclaimed that the final solution to the problem of Chinese farmers is to restore and develop rural industries so that they can transform from traditional and backward rural handicrafts to rural modern industries.

Fei Xiaotong's voice walked alone for a long time, and finally found an echo in the land of China 40 years later.The rapid rise of township enterprises, which are closely related to rural industries, brought Chinese farmers into the new world of modern industry. However, there is another problem that Fei Xiaotong could not think of in the late 1930s. That is: In addition to helping farmers improve the necessary living conditions, is it possible for "rural modern industry" to evolve one step further and become another way of urban origin that is different from the traditional urban model?

Such a topic is really exciting. This is another brand new "Jiangcun Economy". However, before the practice of farmers in Zhejiang, we did not find the answer in the existing theoretical classics. Even in the context of classical Western sociologists, such a question is absurd. Max Weber, considered by many to be the greatest sociologist of this century.He is one of the pioneers of the contemporary Western "social change theory". He once expressed such a view: the life of the steam engine is the death of the mill, and traditional small industries cannot evolve into socialized large-scale production at all.

Since Weber, researchers of contemporary Western mainstream sociology have not put the rural industry into their field of vision, but have taken it for granted as a ""waiting to be eliminated or gradually encroached by urban civilization". backward communities". In such a theoretical construction, the professional market, which is dependent on rural industry, is naturally excluded from the positive factors of social change. If anyone thinks—"from the body of rural industry, fresh blood and bones of modern cities can grow" and "cities with modern commercial characteristics can be developed on the basis of professional markets"—that is against them. Principles and inertia of thinking, and therefore unimaginable.

However, in today's China, in some parts of rural Zhejiang, farmers have partially overturned the arguments of these masters.In Longgang, the first peasant city in China, in Luqiao, in the development fever of small towns in rural Zhejiang, a dream is being born into a fiery reality; in the vast space and time of contemporary China, the modernization of township enterprises has been greatly shortened The gap between the vast rural areas and modern industrial civilization has been shortened.The professional market, which supports each other with the township enterprises, has further enhanced the radiating power of the rural industrial economy, and thus created a new opportunity for social restructuring.In other words, the road to modernization for Chinese peasants will be different from the "historical law" or "universal development path" "discovered" and "guided" by Western masters.

In November 1994, Fei Xiaotong, who was already old, paid a painstaking visit to Wenzhou again. Eight years ago, out of "curiosity", he went to Wenzhou alone for inspection. At that time, he visited more than ten markets in four counties and five towns, and wrote an article "Travel to Wenzhou".That article gave a vivid description of the professional market in Wenzhou, and showed a strong interest in the wave of rural industries taking place in Zhejiang.This article became a guide for many people looking for the mystery of Wenzhou in the future. Eight years later, he was also in Wenzhou, but another scenery attracted him, that is, the turbulence of small towns.In the following long article "Family Real Estate Innovation", this "85-year-old man" seemed to continue the topic of "Jiangcun Economy" and "Wenzhou Trip":

"The development of the professional market has activated circulation, stimulated industry, and promoted the construction of small towns. Fifteen years ago, the desolate situation in small towns that I discussed in the article "Small Towns, Big Problems" has become a thing of the past. Yes. After this page of history was over, it was followed by the wave of rural industrialization in the 1980s. After entering the 1990s, many places have begun a period of rural urbanization. The important sign is that the pace of small town construction has accelerated significantly. “…clearly, this heralds a greater role for Chinese farmers in the country’s urbanization.”