Model Rebels: The Rise and Fall of China's Richest Village

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University of California Press, Feb 18, 2001 - Business & Economics - 219 pages
"Bruce Gilley offers us a riveting tale of local resistance and a timely reminder that great wealth can trigger defiance rather than acquiescence."—Kevin O'Brien, author of Reform Without Liberalization

"This engrossing narrative explains how Yu Zuomin, a dedicated communist, took advantage of China's market reforms to lead his historically poverty-stricken Daqiu Village to astounding and ostentatious wealth. Bruce Gilley portrays Yu as a new kind of peasant rebel. He in sightfully draws out the way in which the Party-run Chinese media first lavished praise on Yu and then, when he overstepped his bounds, demonized him."—Thomas Gold, author of State and Society in the Taiwan Miracle

"The meteoric rise and fall of China's most famous village, Daqiu, and its audacious former boss, Yu Zuomin, provides a cautionary tale of the perils and pitfalls of 'getting rich quick' in post-reform China. In this outstanding book, Bruce Gilley turns a powerful microscope on Daqiu, skillfully rendering its story as a first-class political thriller. Gilley writes so well, his arguments and exposition are so clear, and his case study is so fascinating that the reader is apt to devour it in a single sitting—as I did."—Richard Baum, author of Burying Mao: Chinese Politics in the Age of Deng Xiaoping
 

Contents

Yanzhao Elegy
1
Four Hens and a Slogan
37
Long Live Understanding
73
Outlaws of the Marsh
117
Conclusions
146
Afterword
167
Appendix
181
References
207
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About the author (2001)

Bruce Gilley is a contributing editor to the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong and the author of Tiger on the Brink: Jiang Zemin and China's New Elite (California, 1998).