Construct Rural China as a Modern Space :

‘Building New Socialist Countryside’ and the Practices of ‘New Villagers’ Driven by the ‘Project System’

Author : LI Pei

Page : 217-274

Abstract

 Based on the social-constructivist theory of space, this paper reexamines the process of rural modernization in China from the Building New Socialist Countryside(Shehuizhuyi Xinnongcun Jianshe, also as BNSC) Campaign launched in the mid-2000s to the more recent Rural Revitalization Strategy(Xiangcun Zhenxing) promoted by Xi Jinping Administration. The paper argues that the ‘Project System (Xiangmuzhi)’ has served as a special institutional device that has run through the whole process. It has also regulated the (re)production of rural space launched by various actors, including both the central and local government, as a 'Structured Coherence'. In addition, as the cases this paper revealed, even without significant changes in the basic rural system, the state power and ‘the flow of capital to the countryside(Ziben Xiaxiang)’ have fundamentally reshaped the spaces of practice in rural China through the Project System. However, the rural areas as everyday practices have gradually declined or even vanished in the name of modernization. This has, on the one hand, triggered the central government to turn its attention to the 'modernization of humans'. On the other hand, it has also inspired a lot of reflections and alternative practices at the level of the local rural communities and the civil society.

 Taking the eco-community practices of 'New Villagers(Xin Cunmin)' that have emerged in recent years as a lens, this paper highlights the alternative representation and (re)production of rural space by Chinese civil society and focuses on the external pressures and internal tensions faced by these (re)productions.

<Key Word>

Rural China, Project System, (Re)production of Space, Building New Socialist Countryside, New Villagers