Book report

"Peasant Life in China" is the book which describes the systems of consumption, production, distribution and transaction related with peasants in China. It is the third-person narration and written by Fei Xiaotong who is famous sociologists, anthropologists, national experts and social activist. To my surprise, this book was written in English first and then translated into Chinese many years later. The book is divided into 16 Chapters, consisting of INTRODUCTION, THE FIELD, THE CHIA, PROPERTY AND INHERITANCE, KINSHIP EXTENSIONS, THE HOUSEHOLD AND VILLAGE, LIVELYHOOD, OCCUPATIONAL DIFFERANTATION, CALENDAR AND WORK, AGRICULTURE, LAND TENURE, THE SILK INDUSTRY, SHEEP RAISING AND TRADE VENTURE, MARKETING, FINANCE and AGRARIAN PROBLEMS IN China. In addition, this book is also considered as the master piece of the method of investigating China country economy in academia.

 Fei Xiaotong chose a typical village to have the field trip to collect real information and data to sum up the different development models of China's rural economy. In the book, the writer will often quote many specific data and actual information collected from peasants to prove its conclusions. It also shows his strictly logical writing style.

 In the book, Fei Xiaotong does not only mentioned all kinds of specific conditions of China's rural economy in many aspects, but also analyze how the development modes generate and some related information. What attracts my attention is the marriage tradition and the status of women and men. In the village, marriage is a very formal and strict. People here will obey their parents' suggestions about their marriages according to the tradition. So there is no marriage proposal. Frequently, children have been set the marriage by the parents when they are young, which means that there is no freedom in their marriage. In addition, cousin marriage between phenomenon is very common in order to be doubly related. It is because that the main function of marriage here is to continue and promote the development of the family. However, in these marriages, the status is not equal on both sides. Family members have many requirements to the women and attach great importance to the problem of fertility. People would look down on the women who gave birth to a girl in the village. For the purpose of protecting reputation the family, the grandparents may ask the man to break the marriage with the woman. Then, the man will have a new wife who is used to give birth to a boy. Again and again, the tradition leads to the serious problem of the population. Although we have entered the 21th century, there are still some villages in China which keep the concept that women are just used to give birth to boys. If the woman gives birth to a girl,the woman may be abandoned and other people will look down on the man and family because in the past when there is no machine used to replace labor force,the man is the major labour to work and support families while the woman is only a assistant. Therefore, the women's social status is lower than the men's. However, with the development of society and economy,we have to give up the old concepts and advocates the equality between men and women. The change may have to experience a slow process as the production of concept also used a lot of time.

 In addition to the marriage in the countries, the author also mention the concept of "family", the fundamental and professional job, different systems about the land and the flow of money. In a word, this book introduces all kinds of situations in the country, including economy, politics, culture and social life, which makes it easier for us to have a better understanding to the rural. Therefore, there is no doubt that it is a master piece which is worth reading for you.

2016-06-05

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