Gender and Power in Rural North China (review)

156 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1996 to a "rule by virtue," she might have contributed an interesting new element to her discussion on the dilemmas facing radical leaders in East Asia. Hoston's treatment ofthe roles played by different personalities in the evolution ofMarxism in both countries is of great interest. She clearly perceives why Chinese Marxism had to differ from that ofJapan: simply because the respective leading personalities had different backgrounds and differing concepts of their respective cultures and ofhow they should defer to those cultures. This book accomplishes its objective in establishing what Marxism came to mean in both China and Japan. It gives a clear outline ofthe dilemmas facing nascent Marxists, and it shows how they solved these dilemmas by transforming— or reinterpreting—Marx's ideas to fit into their own cultural context. In their nationalistic fervor, the Japanese finally threw Marx out, whereas the Chinese retained him and added their own stamp by transforming Marxism-Leninism into Marxism -Leninism-Mao Zedongism. In addition to employing Marxism in the consolidation of China, they included in dieir version a large dollop of their own brand oftraditional "nationalism"—the assumption that the essence of Chinese Marxism is for export. And for a short time their assumptions seemed justified. Elisabeth Eide Oslo University Library Elisabeth Eide was curator ofChinese books at Oslo University Library. She is now head ofthe national and special collections at the same institution. Her thesis dealt with China's ideological views on Ibsen. E Ellen R. Judd. Gender and Power in Rural North China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994. xiv, 295 pp. Hardcover $37.50, isbn 0-8047-2295-1. In this important and carefully researched monograph, Ellen Judd argues that despite the appearances ofincreased local autonomy in the postreform era, the state continues to intervene at the household and village levels, with greater subdety and often greater effect than in the past. True, there has been no monolithic statedirected scenario for restructuring the rural sector. The process ofdecollectivization,© 1996 by University growth ofthe free market, and rise ofentrepreneurship proceeds unevenly in reofHawai 1Presssponse to highly varied local conditions. The regions given the most publicityby the Chinese press (for example, Guangzhou/Shenzhen, Xiamen, and Shanghai) are those where village economies have been radically transformed by the growth Reviews 157 ofSpecial Economic Zones, joint ventures, foreign investment, and state transfer ofsome industry to the rural townships. These are, not surprisingly, also the areas to which foreign scholars are steered when they voice interest in studying the effect ofthe reforms. At the other extreme are areas like Ningxia, Gansu, Yunnan, and Guizhou, where large pockets ofpoverty remain and the trickle-down effects ofcoastal wealth are slow in coming. Researchers are not encouraged to spend time there any more than they are encouraged to study the phenomenon ofthe growing floating workforce—the unemployed, semi-employed, and illegally employed —now estimated at close to one hundred million men and women. Professor Judd's research takes a point between the extremes ofrapid growth and continuing underdevelopment. Working as an anthropologist, she draws her data from intensive firsthand research more than from official briefings and short observation. Her data derive from a series of field trips made between 1986 and 1990, including a lengthy stay in 1987-1988. Her fieldwork focused on three villages in north-central Shandong Province. Zhangjiachedao is a "model village" that decollectivized early: since 1979 a sizable weaving and dyeing plant has absorbed the bulk of the labor force while mechanization has reduced the need for full-time agricultural workers. Zianrulin village, decollectivizing more reluctandy, has retained much ofits former structure, assigning households to agricultural teams, making payments according to workpoints, and gradually expanding earlier brigade-level enterprises (a felt-mat workshop, a poultry farm) while adding new ones. In both of these villages Professor Judd found women predominating in the basic agricultural work and an increasing number ofworkers hired from outside for factory work. Men had better opportunities for managerial and skilled jobs in village industries. Huaili village is the most agricultural, and also the most encouraging offamily-based entrepreneurship. Its farming, agricultural specializations , and small-scale commodity production are household undertakings. In...