Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Development is not a dinner party -- 2. Rich Wang's village : marketing the dairy economy -- 3. Buying out collectives and farms -- 4. 'We never forcibly evict anybody, except those who refuse to move' -- 5. 'May God bless our injured land ...' -- 6. Water wallies -- 7. 'The miracle of creation' -- 8. Ethnicity, poverty, migration -- 9. Development is the irrefutable fact.

This stimulating and challenging book explores the duplicitous nature of development in China. On the positive side, it brings longer and healthier lives; fewer children dead before they are five years old; more comfort and security from famine and disaster; more education; more communication; more travel; less war. But from another, darker perspective, development brings violence to some people--those who are in the way of the new things, those who cannot adapt to the new ways--and it threatens old knowledges, habits and societies as it disrupts old power structures.