Chinese Peasants: between traditional and Modern

We need to look at it from many angles in order to better grasp the real image of peasant groups.

There are about 270 million migrant workers in China, and these migrant workers are entrepreneurial.

Compared with urban people, farmers in our country are more embedded in the tradition and culture of "less rational".

In a word, the positive and negative images of modern Chinese farmers are not substantially different from those of other classes.

(1)

China is still in the stage of government and market transformation. The government is transforming from governance to governance, and the economic system is transforming from planned economy to market economy. Accordingly, China's agriculture is transforming from small-scale peasant economy to modern agriculture, and Chinese farmers, like other social occupations, are in the transition from identity to contract.

Among our countrymen, there are those who think highly of the peasants and those who look down upon them. However, the number of people who are bearish far outnumber those who are bullish. On the whole, Chinese farmers are discriminated against, which can be seen from the situation of migrant workers. One is the economic aspect, such as poor wages and welfare; the other is the social aspect, for example, in some places, migrant workers' children are often not allowed to go to local ordinary schools, so they can only attend their children's schools, and even forcibly close their children's schools. at the same time, the children of migrant workers are not allowed to attend local schools. For example, some flight attendants on the bus may often turn a cold shoulder to migrant workers carrying large and small bags; third, in the political aspect, for example, the proportion of peasant representatives among NPC deputies and CPPCC members is on the low side, and farmers lack their own interest representative organizations; fourth, in terms of policies, for example, there is still a system of household registration separation between urban and rural areas in our country so far, although the residence permit system is being introduced all over the country.

In fact, it is not easy to see the image characteristics of peasant groups. Just as we look at government officials, entrepreneurs, scholars, journalists, editors and workers, we cannot generalize the peasant group. As the philosopher Popper said, one cannot absolutely grasp the truth, but one can approach it through trial and error. This means that we can only grasp the image characteristics of peasant groups more accurately through trial and error as far as possible. In our daily life, we often adopt a preconceived and generalized attitude when describing such a professional group as the peasant group. We need to look at it from many angles in order to better grasp the real image of peasant groups.

(2)

The profession of modern Chinese farmers has some particularity, which integrates many functions. To some extent, farmers are both entrepreneurs and managers, bosses and wage earners, technicians and farmers, landlords and tenancy farmers.

Chinese people may easily be confused about the landlord-tenant status of the peasants. According to the Constitution, the land is owned by rural collectives. Under such circumstances, how can the peasants become "landlords"? This is because the collective has a boundary and is composed of its members and farmers. although the rural land is shared by the collective members, after all, everyone has a share of the collective members. But how did farmers become sharecroppers again? This is because collectively owned farmland in rural areas has been contracted to farmers in accordance with the law, so that farmers are tantamount to renting farmland.

China is a country based on the alliance of workers and peasants, and the importance of "industry" is actually ahead of "farmers". From the founding of New China to the present, China has carried out the catch-up strategy. Although "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" have been paid attention to, urban areas and industrialization have been paid more attention. Before the reform and opening up, through policies and measures such as the people's commune system, household registration control policy and unified purchase and marketing, China depressed the return on agricultural factors of production for a long time, and transferred the agricultural surplus squeezed out to urban areas to promote industrial modernization. After the reform and opening up, China basically abolished the people's commune system in 1984 and the policy of unified purchase and marketing in 1992. The policy of household registration segregation in urban and rural areas has continued until today, and it has not been greatly loosened in recent years. Since 1998, governments in various parts of our country have made great progress in land finance, and so far, a large number of farmers' land has been expropriated in the way of no compensation or low compensation.

Over the past decade, the government's support for agriculture, rural areas and farmers is unprecedented. This is also illustrated by the fact that the theme of the No. 1 document of the CPC Central Committee has been locked in "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" for 12 consecutive times. However, the actual policy of the government is still tilted towards the city, for example, the policy of household registration separation between urban and rural areas has not been completely removed, the compensation standard of land expropriation needs to be improved, and compensation has not been implemented entirely based on fair market transaction prices.

Contemporary Chinese entrepreneurs will feel a natural aversion to the hierarchical order of "scholar, peasant, industry and commerce" followed by traditional China. After all, "Shang" ranks last in this hierarchical order, which is very different from the concept of modern people. In modern times, the status of entrepreneurs has been promoted unprecedentedly. One of the great achievements of reform and opening up is the re-emergence of the entrepreneurial class. It is an indisputable fact that many people want to be entrepreneurs and are proud to be entrepreneurs. Economist Schumpeter even said that entrepreneurs should occupy the pinnacle in the economic and social pyramid.

Many Chinese people think that farmers are old-fashioned, conservative, short-sighted and unenterprising. This is not in line with our nearest observation of peasant groups. It is generally difficult to bring farmers and entrepreneurs together, but the situation in China is that there is a huge intersection between farmers and entrepreneurs. There are about 270 million migrant workers in China. These migrant workers have entrepreneurial spirit and are willing to take risks to leave their homes to make a living. Behind so many migrant workers, there are a large number of left-behind elderly, women or children to support them. In the late 1980s, a large number of township enterprises appeared in China, which became half of the economy. Among the founders and operators of these township enterprises are a large number of peasant entrepreneurs, such as Liu Yonghao of Hope Group, Lu Guanqiu of Wanxiang Group, and Wu Renbao of Huaxi Group.