Anthropology 252 - CITY & COUNTRYSIDE IN CHINA

With more than 80 percent of its population based in rural areas, China is usually viewed as a primarily agrarian society. However, economic reforms in the past 20 years have brought about dramatic growth in China?s urban areas. This course examines the conceptualization of urban and rural China in terms of political and economic processes and social relations from the Communist revolution in 1949 to the present day. Against this background, the course explores how broader social theoretical concerns with concepts such as tradition/modernity and state/society have been taken up in the anthropology of China.