When China embarked on its rural economic reforms in the early 1980s, changes for women were not a planned part of its program for economic development, in the countryside or in the nation at large.
In the late 1980s the official arm of the Chinese women's movement, the Women's Federations, began experimenting with a series of strategies designed to position women in the mainstream of the reform-era economy. A distinctive feature of this initiative was its focus on "quality" "(suzhi)," including literacy, general education, and practical technical training, and extending to a general effort to strengthen women's place in the market. The state's official women's movement had paradoxically become the major champion and architect of rural Chinese women's turn toward the market economy.
This book examines in detail how the women's movement strategy was developed and implemented in one village in the northern Chinese province of Shandong, exploring the multiple meanings of the discourse on quality and the creation of a uniquely Chinese gender-and-development policy. The author explores several dimensions of this strategy: the promotion of education and training, the building of an organizational base for the rural women's movement, and the expansion of women's involvement in market competition. The author broadens the scope of the book by comparing similar strategies pursued in urban women's organizations in Shandong in the 1990s.

When humans cooperate, what are the social and psychological mechanisms that enable them to do so successfully? Is cooperativeness something natural for humans, built in to our species over the course of evolution, or rather something that depends on cultural learning and social interaction? This book addresses these central questions concerning human nature and the nature of cooperation. The editors present a wide range of vivid anthropological case-studies focused on everyday cooperation in Chinese communities, for example, between children in Nanjing playing a ballgame; parents in Edinburgh organising a community school; villagers in Yunnan dealing with "common pool" resource problems; and families in Kinmen in Taiwan worshipping their dead together. On the one hand, these case studies illustrate some uniquely Chinese cultural factors, such as those related to kinship ideals and institutions that shape the experience and practice of cooperation. They also illustrate, on the other hand, how China's recent history, not least the rise and fall of collectivism in various forms, continues to shape the experience of cooperation for ordinary people in China today. Finally, they show that in spite of the cultural and historical particularity of Chinese cooperation, it does share some underlying features that would be familiar to people coming from radically different backgrounds.

"For a woman to be without ability is a virtue" is a view attributed to Confucius but still very much alive in contemporary China. It is a paradox-a proposition widely accepted as true by both women and men but in practice denied in the conduct of everyday life. The author explores the recreation of this paradox in the processes of rural reform in China during the 1980's. In the wake of the Cultural Revolution and the rejection of collectivism, the Chinese leadership initiated a series of rural policy changes that included the transfer of collective resources to individuals, households, or groups of households; the replacement of the commune system with formal local governments and mixed (private and public) forms of economic organization; the revival of private marketing; and reduced state control over the production and sale of agricultural produce. This book shows how the reform program ignored the specific roles of women, despite the everyday roles women play in agriculture, rural industry, commodity production, and the dense networks of social relations that rural life comprises. The gender-specific roles played by women are essential to each of these spheres, and in practice they are recognized as essential even if they are officially minimized or denied. Based on fieldwork in three villages of Shandong province, this study concentrates on the centrality of the household in rural social and economic relations. It examines in detail the reconstructed household of the reform era and emphasizes gender relations within the household. The author also describes the gender relations inherent in many aspects of the rural economy, paying particular attention to the ways women organize and construct strategies that encourage change in the interests of rural women. Previous studies of Chinese rural economic reform have reflected and shared the stance of Chinese officialdom, viewing the reform program as purely a matter of political economy and as gender-neutral. This study demonstrates that gender plays an important role in virtually all aspects of the rural political economy, including decollectivization and the revival of household agriculture, the restructuring of villages and village-run industry, the opening to market forces, and the turn toward household-based economic enterprises. Throughout, the author links the everyday relations of gender to the operations of state power and argues that the reconstitution of the Chinese state in the reform era draws force and authority from the inherent politics and power of gender.

When China embarked on its rural economic reforms in the early 1980s, changes for women were not a planned part of its program for economic development, in the countryside or in the nation at large.
In the late 1980s the official arm of the Chinese women's movement, the Women's Federations, began experimenting with a series of strategies designed to position women in the mainstream of the reform-era economy. A distinctive feature of this initiative was its focus on "quality" "(suzhi)," including literacy, general education, and practical technical training, and extending to a general effort to strengthen women's place in the market. The state's official women's movement had paradoxically become the major champion and architect of rural Chinese women's turn toward the market economy.
This book examines in detail how the women's movement strategy was developed and implemented in one village in the northern Chinese province of Shandong, exploring the multiple meanings of the discourse on quality and the creation of a uniquely Chinese gender-and-development policy. The author explores several dimensions of this strategy: the promotion of education and training, the building of an organizational base for the rural women's movement, and the expansion of women's involvement in market competition. The author broadens the scope of the book by comparing similar strategies pursued in urban women's organizations in Shandong in the 1990s.

When humans cooperate, what are the social and psychological mechanisms that enable them to do so successfully? Is cooperativeness something natural for humans, built in to our species over the course of evolution, or rather something that depends on cultural learning and social interaction? This book addresses these central questions concerning human nature and the nature of cooperation. The editors present a wide range of vivid anthropological case-studies focused on everyday cooperation in Chinese communities, for example, between children in Nanjing playing a ballgame; parents in Edinburgh organising a community school; villagers in Yunnan dealing with "common pool" resource problems; and families in Kinmen in Taiwan worshipping their dead together. On the one hand, these case studies illustrate some uniquely Chinese cultural factors, such as those related to kinship ideals and institutions that shape the experience and practice of cooperation. They also illustrate, on the other hand, how China's recent history, not least the rise and fall of collectivism in various forms, continues to shape the experience of cooperation for ordinary people in China today. Finally, they show that in spite of the cultural and historical particularity of Chinese cooperation, it does share some underlying features that would be familiar to people coming from radically different backgrounds.

"For a woman to be without ability is a virtue" is a view attributed to Confucius but still very much alive in contemporary China. It is a paradox-a proposition widely accepted as true by both women and men but in practice denied in the conduct of everyday life. The author explores the recreation of this paradox in the processes of rural reform in China during the 1980's. In the wake of the Cultural Revolution and the rejection of collectivism, the Chinese leadership initiated a series of rural policy changes that included the transfer of collective resources to individuals, households, or groups of households; the replacement of the commune system with formal local governments and mixed (private and public) forms of economic organization; the revival of private marketing; and reduced state control over the production and sale of agricultural produce. This book shows how the reform program ignored the specific roles of women, despite the everyday roles women play in agriculture, rural industry, commodity production, and the dense networks of social relations that rural life comprises. The gender-specific roles played by women are essential to each of these spheres, and in practice they are recognized as essential even if they are officially minimized or denied. Based on fieldwork in three villages of Shandong province, this study concentrates on the centrality of the household in rural social and economic relations. It examines in detail the reconstructed household of the reform era and emphasizes gender relations within the household. The author also describes the gender relations inherent in many aspects of the rural economy, paying particular attention to the ways women organize and construct strategies that encourage change in the interests of rural women. Previous studies of Chinese rural economic reform have reflected and shared the stance of Chinese officialdom, viewing the reform program as purely a matter of political economy and as gender-neutral. This study demonstrates that gender plays an important role in virtually all aspects of the rural political economy, including decollectivization and the revival of household agriculture, the restructuring of villages and village-run industry, the opening to market forces, and the turn toward household-based economic enterprises. Throughout, the author links the everyday relations of gender to the operations of state power and argues that the reconstitution of the Chinese state in the reform era draws force and authority from the inherent politics and power of gender.