Abstract

Until 1911, with the end of the Qing dynasty, China was a single hybrid continuum that was neither urban nor rural. Its civilization was based on a complex web of relationships and hierarchies. The individuals were urban in their political and religious apparatus and rural in their bonds to the land, nature, and place of origin. Chinese society was also based on a social structure of mobility. A large proportion of the population of most cities was non-native and rural. The rural population that temporarily lived in urban centers were mostly rural sojourners. Despite this mobility, native bonds were a principle of social organization. The territory was not organized as a concentric structure of urban centers, with one central city surrounded by secondary subordinated urban nuclei. Urban centers of small size and low centrality were positioned everywhere between larger centers of greater centrality (Skinner 1977: 258).

In contemporary China, the traditional urban-rural continuum does not exist anymore. Instead, an extreme social, economical, and environmental contrast exists between the modern global Chinese mega-cities and the undeveloped hinterland, with its poor and derelict rural environment. There is also a duality and disjunction between the bright, optimistic progress of central mega-cities and the bleak way of life in provincial towns, where factories are closing and employment is decreasing. The post-Mao period has transformed agriculture into family farming; therefore, villagers in poor conditions seek work elsewhere. Rural migration to small towns and global metropolises is controversial in China. In the 1980s, the government slogan was li tu bu lixiang (to leave the land but not to leave the rural areas). Towns have become attractors of economic activity. One of the main characteristics of the new post-socialist city is an increasing residential mobility and the growth of its suburbia. State authorities no longer have the power to prevent movement. Researchers agree that in the mid-1990s, migration affected approximately 80-100 million people (Stockman 1992: 65). Those that belong to this autonomous floating population are dislocated from their place of origin, with a lack of emotional affectivity to the space that receives them, and are spatially limited due to low incomes. In Chinese cities, there is a space of illegality and irregularity in the periphery of urban areas, where migrants are concentrated (Wu 2002: 90-119).