title: Rural returnee entrepreneurs and hybrid rurality in China
Creators: name: Liu, Clark Ke
Publisher: name: University of Reading
Year: 2024

description: From the 1980s, rural to urban migration has been increasing in China, with the number of rural to urban 
migrants reaching 295 million in 2022. From 2010, there has been an emerging trend of urban to rural 
returnee migration. Over half of rural returnees in China start micro and small enterprises after returning 
to origin communities. Returnee entrepreneurs brought back capital, skills and urbanized values 
accumulated during the migration process. As a part of rural communities, they influence and interact 
with rural transformation in economic, social and regulatory contexts. 
Nonetheless, there is limited research about urban to rural returnee entrepreneurs in China. Apart from 
existing focus on rural economic transformation, more knowledge is needed to understand rural 
transformation in social and regulatory contexts. This research aims to address the knowledge gaps by 
investigating interactions of rural returnee entrepreneurs with the process of hybrid rurality, as a way to 
analyse the Chinese rural transformation from the grass-root perspective. To achieve these aims, the 
research 1) examines factors promoting agency to return and agency for entrepreneurship among rural 
returnees in China; 2) explores the embedding process of rural returnee entrepreneurs, and 3) 
interrogates interactions between rural returnee entrepreneurs and the process of hybrid rurality in China. 
A case study approach using the Xiji town in Beijing municipality is adopted to conduct an in-depth analysis 
from diverse perspectives. 
Qualitative analysis of 54 semi-structured interviews and 5 key informant discussions were conducted 
with heterogenous groups. Combined with reviews of the secondary materials, this research reveals that 
heterogeneity of returnee entrepreneurs by age, gender and social networks, influences agency for 
entrepreneurship. There is higher agency for entrepreneurship among young returnees in 30s and 40s 
than older returnees in 50s. Likewise, gender variance is found on the agency for entrepreneurship among 
female and male returnees. While male returnees are found to return and run enterprises, female 
returnees are found more to return and fulfill family obligations. Agency for entrepreneurship among 
female returnees are more the means to increase income for better fulfilling family obligations. 
Moreover, the research finds that social networks of returnee entrepreneurs play significant roles in 
explaining business performance and maintaining agency for entrepreneurship, in terms of utilizing 
resources from rural contexts. The Chinese returnee entrepreneurs can keep their economic assets when 
being away from rural origins. The maintained economic space in origin communities facilitates agency 
for entrepreneurship among returnees and keep migrants embedded in rural contexts. Nonetheless, 
returnee entrepreneurs can be dis-embedded from rural economic and social contexts after returns, if 
their enterprise operations would not be successful. 
Both agency for entrepreneurship and embedding of returnee entrepreneurs are interlinked with the 
process of hybrid rurality, including the evolvement of hybrid contexts, relations and identities that 
reinforce each other. On the one hand, a hybrid economic context that entails emergence of non�agriculture sectors strengthen growth of returnee entrepreneurs and their agency for entrepreneurship. 
On the other hand, a hybrid social context featuring dominance of rural informal relations has limited 
returnee entrepreneurs’ access to resources, which can hinder their agency for entrepreneurship and dis�embed them from rural contexts. At the sa emergence of rural to urban returnee entrepreneurs me time 
of confronting contextual changes, returnee entrepreneurs can feedback and influence the process of 
hybrid rurality by facilitating diversification of economic contexts and growth of hybrid relations in rural 
social contexts. 
This research provides new empirical insights about rural transformation in China by investigating the 
process of hybrid rurality in economic, social and regulatory contexts from a grassroot perspective. It 
shows how rural community members, such as returnee entrepreneurs, can construct rural contexts even 
when experiencing challenges from contextual changes. The evidence of continued rurality in China, albeit 
in hybrid terms, highlights how rurality is being re-constructed rather than ending, and calls for targeted 
policy support towards demands of heterogenous rural community groups, instead of focusing only on 
supply-driven incentives that may benefit only a few.