The Underworld of Rural China: Research on Rural Gangs on China’s Jianghan Plain and Dongting Lake Plain

Since the 1990s, great changes have taken place to rural China. Such changes permeate major aspects of the society, including the social structure of country subdivisions, mechanisms of the maintenance of public order, life ethics and farmer values. These unprecedentedly profound and radical changes are still yet to be thoroughly understood by the academia. This book attempts to deepen such understanding. When radical changes are occurring, the marginal groups in a society are often the first to feel and adapt to the changes. If they ally with the perceptive and aspiring intellectuals, they may even bring about social changes. That’s why the marginal groups deserve attention from social sciences researchers. Through research on the rural gangs on the Jianghan Plain and Dongting Lake Plain, this book attempts to deepen the academia’s understanding on the nature of China’s rural society during a transitional period.
The author’s investigations into rural gangs, farmer ethics and gang influence on rural governance reveal that the nature of the rural society on the Jianghan Plain and Dongting Lake Plain has fundamentally changed. This book refers to such change as “moral ambiguity in the rural society.” At the same time, due to gang interference and involvement, the trend of “rural governance involution” becomes increasingly noticeable.