Over the last half century, China has evolved from a poor rural country to a geopolitical powerhouse. Rapid urbanization has been at the heart of that transformation, and as migrant laborers have left their villages, what has become of the rural communities that were once the center of economic, social, and cultural life? And how do contemporary Chinese scholars understand those changes? These are the questions that this compelling book answers. Lengshuigou village, located near the Shando...

Despite decades of rural-to-urban transformation in China, much of the literature still treats villages and cities as distinct entities. This book reframes rural-urban transformation as an integrated process, examining administrative practices, implementation challenges, and the evolution of new-type urban communities.Based on extensive, multisite fieldwork conducted over several decades in Shandong Province, the author makes a contribution to Chinese village studies by examining t...