On Friday the 10th, we were taken by Party Secretary Liang for an "official" tour of the village that encompasses several factories, schools, the hospital, temples and churches, agricultural sectors,
public gardens and a "cultural" center, a sheep farm, etc. It was quite a tour- so much was packed into 4 hours! The factories were quite facinating- at least initally anyway....we saw 4 paper mills, a
pharmacutical factory and the water treatment and power plant systems for the village all back-to-back. The combination of overpowering stench and steam was making us all lightheaded so it became increasingly difficult to maintain an attitude of polite interest. (By the 6th or 7th factory we were all sharing the same growing sense of dread that we would be spending signifigant amounts of time in ALL 14 factories in the village.)

I found the tour extremely interesting and revealing for my research topic.  To give a little background and perspective of how this village works, I would describe it as a public/private corporation essentially run by a "CEO", Party Secretary Liang. All of the many village enterprises as well as all education, administration, healthcare, etc., are run by the Longquan Group. (Also operates as the village Party Commitee.) In many ways the villagers themselves are comparable to
shareholders (not directly though- "redistributive socialism"). As their salaries and the ammenities of the village are directly dependent on Group profits, they have strong incentive to directly increase quality/output etc. Nevertheless all business decisions are of a command type, from the top and are made based on the overall plan rather than in response to a free market like consumer economy. It is of interest to observe the way that village leaders construct the needs of the village and use this as the criteria for determining what should be done to satisfy the Villager needs and attract buisness clients and tourists.  Secretary Liang is highly connected to levels of the party and promotional networks (township, city, county, province) all the way up to the national level. Thus far, the adoption of individual and group incentive strategies has been extremely succesful- the businesses are thriving especially compared to neighboring villages, and the village has been awarded with many, many distictions  Liang himself was very recently recongnized as "National Model Worker" and I must say he is quite a remarkable man in his own right- both in his incredible buisness and political savvy (I will write about some of the truly brilliant publicity stunts he has authored in another entry) and he knows every detail about this well-oiled machine of a village at any given moment. The major flaw in the system that is clearly apparent is the lack of individual initiative and the seeming  lack of back up executive administration;   everything always needs to be approved by the Committee and the Committee needs the approval of the Secretaary to tqke any action even the smallest ones.

We visited recently rebuilt "Grandma's Temple" (though they never actually mention "filial piety") the hospital (where it was emphasized, free elderly care was provided) and the new retirement center which attracts many visiting leaders. All these combine to project the view that the village is outstanding in its care for the elderly, with all the accompanying implications about village morality. Another example is the orchards/ waterways/fishing ponds which were expressly built to attract tourists to the area. In fact, we are actually conributing to this process ourselves- part of the reason for our exceptional welcome here is the phenomenal promotional opportunity we provide to raise the profile of the village. We have recieved all kinds of media attention ("smile for the camera blond American girl!") all the way up to the provincial level, so it is quite a feather in the village's cap to have a large team of American researchers interested in their success!

One of the things that often strikes me is the uniqueness of this research opportunity. During the semester we had several top CA experts in the field of rural China deliver lectures to the team. They all talked about the red tape and delays they experienced in doing their fieldwork. One anthropologist mentioned that she had to wait 6 months for permission to enter a factory! Most of my books on the subject talk about having a Bejing (or at least local) offical accompany them on their interviews. (You can imagine the effect this must have...) In contrast we have a complete open door here and the run of the village with extremely minimal monitoring. (This is not to say that all villagers feel comfortable in giving thier frank opinion of course....) I have  thus far not been refused in anything I ask for in terms of records, entrances to private meeting etc- even in one situation in which my interpreter was sure I would be barred. Remarkable! Most of this smoothness is attributed to the unique connection to the village we have via   Proffesor Laichen Sun, our team leader and laison to the village (he was born and raised here.).  If I need to speak with a particular official he normally sets it up within 24 hours. I certainly hope this project makes his career- I have never seen anyone so committed to the success of a project- he manages to be consistently involved in each individual's progress and is perpetually networking as well. He actually admitted to me the other day that this is the hardest he has worked in his entire life....that is really saying a great deal coming from a typically workaholic college professor/researcher! Yet he manages to maintain a good humour and affability about everything!

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