China Archives - Page 98 of 112 - understand-culture

Zhejiang Village

In the 1980s, people from Wenzhou in Zhejiang settled in Beijing’s Fengtai District to trade. Their district became known as “Zhejiang Village.” The anthropologist Xiang Biao studied it. When people there needed workers in 1984, he writes, they wrote home or even went back in person, to mobilize relatives and find suitable girls through kin networks and in their own and nearby villages. “This was common in Zhejiang Village.”

“Our own people,” he notes, meant “direct relatives or good friends, who would speak up for one when needed.” By 1987, newcomers no longer needed a tie to someone already there. He counts 96,000 outsiders in the area beside 14,000 Beijing natives.

Native-Place Halls

In Ming and Qing cities, people from the same home region built guild halls, huiguan. The earliest one known is the Wuhu Guild Hall in Beijing, built in the Yongle era of the Ming. At first the halls gave fellow natives a place to meet, to enjoy themselves and to stay the night. Some later became associations of merchants in the same trade.

The Spring Festival Rush

Every year, in about forty days around the Spring Festival, hundreds of millions of people cross the country. The rush is called chunyun. It grows out of the custom of reuniting with family for the festival. Even people who work far from home try to be back before New Year’s Eve.

The word first appeared in People’s Daily and Xinhua reports in 1980. For the 2026 rush, 9.4 billion cross-region trips were expected, a new record.

The Southern Tour

From January 18 to February 21, 1992, Deng Xiaoping, then 88, toured Wuchang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shanghai. “Reform and opening must be bolder and dare to experiment,” he said. “Once we see clearly, we should boldly try and boldly break through.”

“Without upholding socialism, without reform and opening, without developing the economy and improving the people’s lives, there is only a dead end.”

Trust Without Contracts

In Rural China (乡土中国), the sociologist Fei Xiaotong describes rural society as a society of people who know one another. There, he writes, “trust does not rest on respect for contracts.” It comes from “the reliability of knowing the rules of conduct so well that one acts without thinking.”

Acquaintances, he notes, say: “We are all acquaintances. A greeting is enough, why say more?” In modern society people fear that “the spoken word is no proof,” so “they make a mark and sign their names. Only then does law begin.”

The Story of Spring

The song “The Story of Spring” praises Deng Xiaoping. Its two verses tell of reform and opening in 1979 and of the Southern Tour in 1992. The lyrics are by Jiang Kairu and Ye Xuquan, the music by Wang Yougui, and Dong Wenhua sang it. It became famous after CCTV broadcast it in October 1994.

In 1997, it was the theme song of the CCTV documentary Deng Xiaoping, and Dong Wenhua sang it at the Spring Festival Gala on February 6.

The Peach Garden Oath

In the first chapter of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei burn incense in a peach garden and swear an oath. “Though we are of different surnames, now that we are brothers we will join hearts and strength. We do not ask to be born in the same year, month and day. We only wish to die in the same year, month and day.”

The oath ends: “If one betrays righteousness and forgets kindness, may Heaven and men together destroy him.” The official history of the period records that Liu Bei shared a bed with the two men and that their bond was “like that of brothers.” The words of the oath come from the novel.

Reform Pioneers

On December 18, 2018, at the celebration of 40 years of reform and opening, the Central Committee and the State Council gave the title “Reform Pioneer” and its medal to 100 people. Ten foreigners received the China Reform Friendship Medal.

Witnesses to the Deed

Deeds for land and houses in Ming and Qing China name 中见人, middlemen and witnesses who arranged the sale and signed the deed. One Qing deed studied by the legal historian You Chenjun lists five middlemen and an official broker, who “all signed.” It contains the formula: “Lest there be no proof later, this deed is drawn up as evidence.”

A dictionary defines 中人 as a person who stands between two sides to mediate, to witness or to introduce a sale.

Only a Progressive Tense

On December 3, 2013, at a study session of the Politburo, Xi Jinping said: “The development of practice never ends, the emancipation of the mind never ends, and reform and opening never end. Reform and opening has only a progressive tense and no perfect tense.”