| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Based on detailed ethnographic fieldwork, this paper compares two cases of peasant protest against heavy taxes and fees in a
northern Hunan county in the 1990s. It argues that peasant protest did
not arise spontaneously. Rather, it erupted when leaders emerged who
used central policy documents on lowering peasant taxes and fees to
mobilise peasants. Protest leaders were articulate and public-spirited
peasants who had received political training from the local party-state.
Furthermore, the number of leaders, their education level, and their relationship with the local party-state explain why the repertoire and the
scope of the two protests varied. Protests led by less educated veteran
Communist Party cadres tended to be milder and smaller than those led
by better-educated peasants more distant from the local party-state. This
paper helps us to understand the process of peasant mobilisation in contemporary China and explains why peasant protest varies across cases.
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