Place, Power, and Potential: Agricultural Modernization and the Remaking Of China’s Countryside

Abstract

This dissertation explores the influence of the Chinese state’s ongoing agricultural modernization policy through the experience of Ruilin township, Anhui Province. One of the first sites to receive modernization funding, Ruilin became a state model based on its rapid and expansive implementation of large-scale, mechanized agriculture. Based on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Ruilin, I find that Ruilin officials coerced villagers into transferring their land; implementation varied drastically between villages; and large-scale farmers were financially failing. This dissertation explores the causes and implications of these outcomes. Using cultural geographic, political ecologic, and resilience theoretic lenses, I argue that Ruilin’s modernization campaign contains core failings and extreme disparities – yet is perceived by the state at large as a success – due in part to competing territorializing interpretations of Ruilin’s identity.