China's new socialist countryside : modernity arrives in the Nu River Valley /

This book is an ethnographic study of ethnic minorities in Gongshan County along the Nu River Valley in Yunnan Province, China, including the Lisu, Nu, Dulong, and Tibetan peoples. The study focuses on the consequences of economic and educational intervention programs imposed on local communities by the party-state government. These programs aim to introduce market-oriented economies to improve the livelihoods of local peoples and also impose a compulsory nine-year education program to make local students meet national education standards. Harwood acknowledges that the intervention programs have transformed the local communities by increasing people's livelihoods and educational levels, but he is also skeptical of the sustainability of such programs that are imposed from an authoritarian government above, with limited open discussions or challenges from local citizens. In addition, the author is critical of the ethnocentrism in Han-culture-based educational approaches that belittles minorities' cultures as backward or underdeveloped. More importantly, Harwood brings up questions that are applicable to situations beyond the communities in Gongshan, such as conservation of minority cultures and livelihoods against the background of globalization, as well as structured inequalities in the process of urbanization and market-oriented economic development. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. A. Y. Lee George Mason University