11. Publication goals: We intend to write a joint book which we hope will be of value to three categories of readers: the specialist student of Chinese affairs, the student of rural development problems in general, and the informed general reader interested in gaining some insight into Chinese society.
In addition to this book, we individually expect, in whatever time might possibly remain to us after completion of the book or in the years to come, to write several monographs and articles relating to the village. These will focus principally upon those aspects of our findings that are most pertinent to an understanding of China's rural development.
Research Information
A.Purpose
12. Hypotheses and Objectives: This is not the kind of textbook. research which begins with carefully formulated hypotheses and then seeks evidence to see whether they can be falsified. Its point of origin is a chance opportunity, and its purpose is primarily descriptive. In the latter respect, of course, it is similar in scope and intent to many community studies carried out in the past by sociologists and anthropologists. Like them, too, it was begun with a set of central concerns derived from previous knowledge and prejudices. Our own initial interests dealt with:
(a) the conflicts between tradition and modernity in the
Chinese countryside;
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(b) the motives peasants have for becoming 'political
activists' the extent to which ideological conviction entered into their motives, or patriotism, or the percep- tion of long-term self-interest, or village solidarity;
(c) the structural and attitudinal prerequisites for rural economic development in China's socialist context.
As our interviewing progressed, however, and we learned more about the village, new and more precise focusses of interest emerged; as examples,
(a) how relations between leaders and led are handled and how
these affect village investment decisions;
(b), how the different remuneration systems that have been tried have influenced peasant attitudes toward their work and toward each other;
(c) the politics of water control and irrigation schemes;
(d) the varied and sometimes unexpected effects that mechani- zation, electrification and new agricultural technologies have had upon the village's agricultural productivity, upon the daily patterns of peasant life, and upon village attitudes toward change;
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