Tracing a Trajectory of Hope in Rural Communities in China: Survival Bricolage of Zhoujiazhuang and Puhan Rural Community

Zhoujiazhuang and the Puhan Rural Community offer contrasting experiences of how communities in different parts of China have responded to, negotiated, and undergone extensive changes during the last forty years since the reform policy was implemented in the country in 1979. Though these two localities are characterized by their specific histories, they are more or less similarly constrained by the forces of China’s pursuit of modernization, aiming to build a “strong China” as a key player in international politics and the global economy. It seems to have become a common refrain that sacrifices must be made in order to be “successful,” sacrifices borne by the majority of people, excluded from decision-making mechanisms, mainly the urban poor and rural populations. There is no doubt that ordinary people suffer as ruling elites become more powerful and more prosperous. Despite this, the spirits of the expendable, the subjugated, and the marginalized are resilient and go against the current, tracing a trajectory of hope.