Xiaorong Han explores how Chinese intellectuals envisioned the peasantry and its role in changing society during the first half of the twentieth century. Politically motivated intellectuals, both Communist and nonCommunist, believed that rural peasants and their villages would be at the heart of change during this long period of national crisis. Nevertheless, intellectuals saw themselves as the true shapers of change who would transform and use the peasantry. Han uses intellectuals' writings to provide a comprehensive look at their views of the peasantry. He shows how intellectuals with varying politics created images of the peasanta supposed contemporary image and an ideal image of the peasant transformed for political ends, how intellectuals theorized on the nature of Chinese rural life, and how intellectuals conceived their own relationships with peasants.

Table of Contents

Ch. 1 Introduction 1

Ch. 2 The intelligentsia, the peasantry, and the Chinese nation 7

Ch. 3 The image of the peasant 19

Ch. 4 The nature of rural society 73

Ch. 5 Patterns of intellectual-peasant relations 117

Ch. 6 Conclusion 167

Xiaorong Han is Assisant professor of history at Butler University. She earned her PhD from UC Berkeley.