Chapter 62 Epilogue brings us closer to China

In the vast world, there is a peach tree with lush branches and leaves. A bud quietly grows, takes shape, opens, and bears fruit. The wind and rain alternate, the cold and heat alternate, the spring breeze and the sun are blowing, and the rain and dew are moistened by the moonlight. A peach is ripe. A peach is falling... During the days and nights of writing this book, such scenes often flashed before my eyes. I have "written" this book for six or seven years.As an economic reporter of Xinhua News Agency stationed in Zhejiang, I have been watching the ups and downs of the professional market intently.

When Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House offered me to write this book, I took it on without hesitation.For me, it is not so much because of a kind of interest in work, as it is because of a heavy responsibility. However, when I was actually writing this book, I found that all the observations in the past were nothing more than shallow mining of a rich treasure mine. For this reason, there were repeated interviews and a large amount of historical materials collected and sorted out for a year from June 1996 to June 1997.Although during this period, my work was repeatedly interrupted by various important, urgent, and trivial matters in my career and life, but my persistence over time has finally paid off.

Now, my postscript and description of the magnificent changes that took place in the eastern countryside at the end of the 20th century, as well as my predictions for the future direction of rural China, are all written here. During this period, I have always considered myself a lucky "peach picker".For the ripening of this peach, countless people have devoted countless efforts and time to it.I have always been uneasy about whether I can record their demeanor. Hopefully this assignment will pass. Professor Friedman, an American economist and Nobel Prize winner, once said freely: Whoever can solve the mystery of China's economic take-off will become one of the last few Nobel Prize winners in this century.

Because, in the history of world economic evolution in the past 30 years, no change has greater and more fascinating humanistic value than the modernization journey of a population of 1.2 billion. And there is no doubt that in the economic myth of contemporary China, farmers are a class that cannot be ignored.The most important issues of the contemporary economy: the transformation from the agricultural economic form to the modern industrial form, the transfer of surplus labor force in rural areas, the road to urbanization in rural areas, etc., all of which can find unique solutions in China.

We have to point out such a reality: In the past 20 years, farmers have continued to provide cities with food, pork, cotton, and even land and talents. Poverty was eliminated, and an astonishing number of towns and cities were established. In this process, township enterprises and professional markets are a pair of "Twin Constellations" that truly bring about miracles.The former has completed the primary accumulation of industrialization, while the latter has released huge circulation potential and consumption space. The professional market makes it possible for township enterprises to communicate with the modern information society. Chinese farmers have won the recognition of urban industry and citizens through this way of spot trading. Qualified to compete on the same stage. Although standing in the middle of those bustling markets, people are amazed and sighed, but it seems that it is not easy for someone to dissect and study it as an important type of economic development.

During my interview, I deeply felt that without the timely emergence of a professional market, the growth of township enterprises would be unimaginable, and the renewal of concepts and the road to poverty alleviation in many backward areas would be much longer . So I am here to make a loud call for the growth of realist economic theory. As a professional journalist, all I can do is "picking peaches", an intuitive description of the original ecology of the economy and thinking with a strong emotional color. As for a lot of rational analysis and demonstration, it can only be done by professors and Ph.D. We're done.

I would be perfectly satisfied if my labors could be part of this theoretical project. In this book, I have used the concept of "contemporary rural reform" a lot. Because I think that no matter whether it is a professional market, a township enterprise, or a boom in small towns developed on the basis of the two, only in this context can their true meaning be fully discovered. And the origin of this great change should be counted from the 1950s, which seemed far away.At that time, the first generation of Communist Party leaders put forward the resounding slogan of building a new socialist countryside. "Lighting lamps without oil, plowing land without cattle" and "Upstairs and downstairs, electric lights and telephones" were the highest dreams of Chinese farmers back then.However, this dream went through several twists and turns, and it was not continued until the end of the 1970s, and today it finally came out. However, we could not find a common pattern to describe them.The Southern Jiangsu model, the Wenzhou model, the Pearl River Delta model, the experience of Shandong, etc. Farmers from all over the country are cultivating different varieties of "economic peach trees" in their own ways.In fact, difference and diversification are the biggest features of this rural transformation in China, which also shows the infinite possibilities and richness of future development.

Among them, we can see that, as far as Zhejiang is concerned, its road to reform has both strong commonality and obvious uniqueness, and the professional market is the most conspicuous "peach". The sayings like "run the market, look at Zhejiang" and "Zhejiang's experience counts the market", are the people's high evaluation of this resource-poor province. At the beginning of writing this book, I have been vacillating between two themes. On the one hand, I am trying to explore the overall trajectory of rural reform in China, and on the other hand, I really want to describe a unique page of Zhejiang market experience.

In the end, I walked through the entire writing process in this swaying posture. Because I gradually realized that these two themes co-exist and coexist, and there is no choice.Behind them, there is actually a bigger theme, that is, the human revolution, that is, the self-renewal and rebirth of a generation of Chinese farmers under the influence of modernization.Although I used these four words as the title of a chapter, in fact, it is the only subject of this book. I would also like to say something that is not very relevant to this book. What I want to say is that there are still two ills that are not noticed by some people in today's Chinese intellectual circles.

One is that he likes to "comment on China as a whole", likes to point out the country with a bookish spirit, arranges some news and old news in different combinations, and then names them with sensational titles and conclusions.This kind of writing wants to make people aware of their own faintness, and it may be able to "warn the world".But in fact, it does not "know the world". The second is to "focus on China with Western theories" at every turn. They like to transfer various schools of Western economic theories as they are, and put them on China. It is as rigid as the theory of classic Marxist writers as a dogma to guide practice.

Not so long ago, I was a follower of these two fashions. I must read any article like that and buy every new book like that.However, in my research and writing, I discovered that my past self was actually a leisurely spectator wandering outside the fiery era. If I hadn't been running between markets in those days, if I hadn't been shuttling between farmhouses and cottages, if I hadn't held hands with those rough and powerful hands, if I hadn't looked at those pairs of clear and stubborn eyes, Without all these, but just sitting in the study, talking about worrying about the country and the way to rejuvenate the country, thinking about it now, it is extremely naive. In the 1930s, Liang Shuming, Fei Xiaotong and other scholars took the lead in launching a "back to the countryside" movement, and some big intellectuals left the cities and returned to the countryside.There, they collected folk songs and made field trips, thus laying the foundation of modern Chinese sociology. However, for a long time after that, we did not see any latecomers in that country. When I finish writing the last space of this book, I would like to say to all contemporary cultural people: Let us get closer to China; let us go back to the people.