Review on Chinese Village Community Centered on the Kainou-Hirano Debate

In China' s rural areas, the tension between village cadres and villagers has been increased, due to the intensified social stratification .However, the root of this social phenomenon runs deep into Chinese history that we can only sort it out by examining the basis on which the rural societal structure has so far been formed.Is a village of such type an association composed of only spontaneous activities purely for self-interests of the individuals, or a community ruled by commonly agreed social regulations?This question gave rise to a wide debate among Japanese scholars in sociology, law theory and other related fields in social sciences (also called Kainou-Hirano Debate), who took the Preliminary Investigation to the Rural Areas of China in the First Part of 1940s as major reference.Most scholars insisted that China's villages should be viewed as associations with limited socio-economic functions, although with very loosely organized structure resulting from social stratification and clan administration.They also surmised that under such circumstances village cadres' authority had been seriously weakened.Under the condition that villagers help each other as exchange and only for their own interests, village serves as no more than a living community where villagers can obtain the necessaries of life.Therefore , during the transition of the China' s villages to functionorientated organizations, the nature of villages as village communities, together with villagers' own identities with such village communities, needs to be solidified.Future social work will also include restoring the over-stratified rural society and preserving the completeness and stability of the villages.

李国庆；

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