Reviews

Chinese Village, Socialist State by Mark Selden, Kay Ann Johnson, Paul G. Pickowicz, Edward Friedman

gannent's review against another edition

4.0

The authors conducted interviews with villagers in Raoyang county in Hebei province, in the north of China. The book describes the lives of the villagers, mostly focusing on Wugong village, from the beginning of the 20th century to around 1960 and 1961. The authors were able to interview not only villagers, but also outsiders who supported the village or were otherwise involved, giving them a bigger picture of the events. Wugong was exceptional though, so I'm not sure how much of a good average it is. The authors are careful to not when Wugong's circumstances were above average, or somehow different from the norm. It was really informative and interesting, but I wouldn't recommend it to a casual reader.