Village Urbanization in China

Abstract

Thirty years ago the majority of people in China were farmers. They lived in simple village houses and owned land collectively. Today, the radical transformation brought about through by China’s economic reforms has completely restructured this predominantly rural population in terms of their work, their leisure time, their homes, their incomes, their family structure and their aspirations. This has produced an increasingly stratified society from the very rich, to an emergent middle- class, to people who whose lives have remained seemingly unchanged and still farm the land.