The Spiral Road: Change In A Chinese Village Through The Eyes Of A Communist Party Leader, Second Edition (Development, Conflict, and Social Change)
An exceptional look at contemporary rural China. Huang (anthropology, Iowa State) skillfully penetrates the barriers of culture, class, etc., to reveal life in a coastal village. The book covers the past 40 years through the perspective of Ye Wende, village leader and local Communist party secretary, whom Huang met in 1984 when he went to southeastern China to teach and do fieldwork. From Ye we hear about events that have shaken rural China: land reform, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. The rural, peasant perspective of this book makes it dramatically different from others. Only Anita Chan et al., Chen Village: The Present History of a Peasant Community in Mao's China (LJ 5/1/84), provides comparable insight. Huang's book, however, is more readable and less an academic treatise. Although published by an academic house, this compelling work deserves a wide general audience.- David D. Buck, Univ. of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.