No. 9 Courtyard and Rural China

Abstract

A few days ago, I passed by the main gate of No. 9 Courtyard by chance. I could not help stopping and looking at it: the thick and dignified gate with the marble doorplate reading “Mansion of Prince Li of the Qing Dynasty” is just as before. Beside the gate, soldiers stood on guard with guns. Nobody knows exactly how many recruit–veteran successions occurred at the posts, but it still seemed to be familiar to me. More than 20 years have passed, but the appearance here, compared to the first time I entered the gate, has been exactly the same. However, I know that the deep and mysterious courtyard has totally changed as far as the persons working inside are concerned. In those years, this place had been a “meeting place of wind and clouts” for Chinese rural reforms. Every move within the courtyard had been closely associated with Chinese rural reforms, but now it has disappeared from the sight of rural researchers.

This article was published in Zhongguo fazhan guancha (China Development Observation), issue 9, 2005.