The story of one village, Yantian, and its remarkable economic and social transformation, this book shows how outcomes are shaped by a number of factors such as path dependence, social structures, economic resources and local entrepreneurship.

China has undergone a remarkable process of urbanization, but a significant portion of its citizens still live in rural villages. To gain better access to jobs, health care, and consumer goods, villagers often travel or migrate to cities, and that cyclical transit and engagement with new technoscientific and medical practices is transforming village life. In this thoughtful ethnography, Gonçalo Santos paints a richly detailed portrait of one rural township in Guangdong Province, north of the industrialized Pearl River Delta region. Unlike previous studies of rural-urban relations and migration in China, Chinese Village Life Today—based on Santos’s more than twenty years of field research—starts from a rural community’s point of view rather than the perspective of major urban centers. Santos considers the intimate choices of village families in the face of larger forces of modernization, showing how these negotiations shape the configuration of daily village life, from marriage, childbirth, and childcare to personal hygiene and public sanitation. Santos also outlines the advantages of a rural existence, including a degree of autonomy over family planning and community life that is rare in urban China. Filled with vivid anecdotes and keen observations, this book presents a fresh perspective on China’s urban-rural divide and a grounded theoretical approach to rural transformation.

This portrait of social change in the North China plain depicts how the world of the Chinese peasant evolved during an era of war and how it in turn shaped the revolutionary process. The book is based on evidence gathered from archives and interviews with villagers and rural officials.

This book examines key issues in international digital marketing in China from a theoretical and empirical perspective. Divided into two main parts, it begins with an analysis of China’s cultural characteristics and business environment, with a particular emphasis on the Chinese digital context. The book goes on to present original empirical studies and an investigation into recent challenges and opportunities for international firms in the fashion sector. With nearly 900 million internet users and an e-commerce market volume of over one thousand billion US dollars, China is the world's largest digital market. While this creates significant opportunities for international firms, there are many factors to consider when approaching this market. In order to understand the Chinese digital scenario, the book analyzes the characteristics of local internet platforms and consumer patterns. The book also presents a real-world case study on a luxury retail firm operating in China, Florentia Village, and the results from a questionnaire on Chinese mobile shoppers. On this basis, it provides a conceptual framework and discusses the theoretical and managerial implications for international firms operating in China, making it an enlightening book for scholars, students, and practitioners alike.

This is Volume I of six in a collection on the Sociology of East Asia. Originally published in 1948, this study looks at the village of Taitou in the Shantung Province.

Learn the secrets of doing business successfully in China! From tips on how to run joint ventures with Chinese companies to research on the tastes of Chinese consumers, Greater China in the Global Market contains the most up-to-date information on business and marketing strategies in China. This volume brings you the practical advice and empirical research of top experts in the field, including John Farley of Dartmouth College, John Child of Cambridge University, and Rohit Despande of Harvard University. Tapping China's huge economy can be highly profitable, but only if you understand the subtleties of doing business in the Chinese culture. Greater China in the Global Market offers insider's views of guanxi, the Chinese concept of relationship that can make or break international business ventures in China, as well as the expertise in Chinese corporate and consumer cultures you will need to establish successful business strategies. Greater China in the Global Market presents a comprehensive view of the essential factors in marketing to China, including: the difference in corporate culture between joint ventures and state-owned enterprises the most effective ways to manage the value chain activities in joint ventures the merits and limitations of various entry strategies, including umbrella companies, franchising, and contractual joint ventures, among others the influence of risk-absorption capability and risk-dispersion mechanisms on the choice of entry mode the factors that influence timing your entry into the market the changing tastes of Chinese consumers the correlation between brand consciousness and income in younger consumers a thorough literature review of twenty years of marketing research on China Greater China in the Global Market is a valuable resource for front-line marketing executives in China as well as corporate decision makers in their headquarters at home. It is a must read for academics and business practitioners with an interest in China.