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Will the Boat Sink the Water?: The Life of China's Peasants

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John Pomfret writes in his introduction to this book that when he was in college in the late 1970s, professors taught that the Chinese Communist Party "truly represented the wishes of China's dispossessed" and one quoted Mao's saying that "A revolution is not a dinner party." Chinese reporters Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao document the plight of the peasants in their country, showing Pomfret and anyone else who dares to read their expose how corruption, excessive taxation, miscarriages of justice, too many layers of bureaucracy, and unchecked industrial pollution oppress and threaten the very existence of China's poorest.

China is no worker's paradise. The rural population is basically an unprivileged underclass -- a class of serfs -- that the government squeezes mercilessly. Despite declarations from the top Chinese Communist rulers that peasants should not be pay more than 5% of their annual income in taxes, 19% is closer to the truth. For a subsistence population, such heavy taxation (often in the form of ill-defined, sometimes illegal, fees and fines) is more than they can bear. Yet, their appeals for relief to various levels of their government generally result only in the status quo retained.

A sizable portion of the book relates journalistic investigations into specific several cases of murder of peasants by village or township officials. The petty officials became enraged to the point of doing or ordering bodily violence against peasants because the fed-up farmers were taking public steps to expose their (the officials') corruption.

Then, the authors cite some of the recent policies of the Chinese central government that have increased the sufferings of the peasants. Examples include increasing the layers of local governance, commanding villages to invest in industrial enterprises that are not sustainable and that force them into mountains of debt, and permitting giant gobs of industrial pollutants to turn black rivers peasants must use for bathing and drinking water.

"Will the Boat Sink the Water? The Life of China's Peasants" does feature portraits of good, conscientious officials who put the welfare of their villages or regions ahead of their own advancement. But the Chinese Communist system does not ordinarily promote such people. The Party is more interested in keeping the peasants in their place, and it promotes those officials who inflate the agricultural yields and other economic "successes" of their locality and who deliver their assessed taxes in full.

This revealing look at China at the grassroots level should be read by everyone who has read glowing reports of the progressive, sweeping economic and social strides allegedly remaking the most populous nation on earth. There *is* a dinner party going on: the Chinese peasants are being feasted upon by their cadres, village heads, and Party watchdogs.

This English translation of the book now banned in China is very highly recommended.

I agree with John Pomfret, who concludes that this is one of the most important books to come out of China in a long time. I am a China specialist who regularly spends time in both urban and impoverished rural areas of China. This book provides excellent anecdotal examples of some of the sacrifices that China is making to modernize. These sacrifices are manifesting themselves in many ways: displaced workers, lost arable land and displaced farmers, corruption, increasing urban-rural income gap, etc. The book was originally published in China under the title _Zhongguo nongmin diaocha_ (An Investigation of Chinese Peasants). The book has since been banned in China. This translation will seem somewhat "foreign" to the non-Chinese speaker, but it is accurate and reflects the original language.

Forget the title, this is an interesting expose on the Chinese peasant. These 900 million people toil in the backwaters of rural China, and were instrumental in getting their country industrialized. They also helped the country sustain itself following the Great Leap Forward (or backward in reality) and the Cultural Revolution. These people spend countless hours in backbreaking labor only to have party cadres unfairly tax them beyond their means. This book by a husband and wife team examines stories about their home province and show the corruption of village and party administration. China may be a coming superpower, but it better solve these problems before the people throw the rascals out.

I found this a very informative read. It starts out slow, but this is an intensely interesting book about the unfair lives led by millions of Chinese peasants and the people that are supposed to protect them-the party and village government hacks.

This book is Heartbreaking, terrifying, but important for anyone dealing with China to read.

It spells out very clearly the political and social dynamics at the village and township level through story after story. Only, the even more depressing aspect is that there are many more stories than just those in the book.

The writer helps us understand some of the callous bribery and corruption that is undertaken by corrupt local officials against those Chinsee citizens who can bear it the least, poor peasants. It also shows the courageous efforts undertaken by some peasants to achieve basic justice, and be able to get on with their lives.

To anyone working in business in China this book is essential, to understand both the dangers to you in getting in to deals, and to those with a conscience, the potential impacts on others of partnering with less than ethical officials.

For anyone working in development issues in China this book is essential.

For anyone working in CSR and ethical sourcing in China, this book is essential to help you understand where workers come from and why, and what might help them when they go back home (education-the power of being able to read and write).

The only heartening aspect of this book is that it sold so well, and with movements like the new Harmonious Society campaign, maybe it was listened to by some at the top.

To those outside China, all the more reason to press and support China in continuing to improve the rule of law, and free access to education at the rural level.

This short book should be an excellent antidote to the hype about China's economic resurgence and strength. We recommend Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao's frank, unvarnished account of peasant oppression and misery. Since peasants are the majority of the Chinese population, the system described here is China's true governance. The accounts of peasants suffering under local officials' tyranny are unsparing and quite moving, but the book is particularly valuable for its insights into how weak and ineffective Chinese laws and regulations really are. At the local level, laws clearly mean little against political connections and power. The danger is that this disparity could provoke another revolution in China.

There are a lot of so Westerners out there who call themselves "experts" on China, but no Westerner has ever come close to the genuine research of this Chinese husband and wife team. I cant emphasise enough how special this book is. It gives a unique and, unfortunately, depressing view of rural China. While there haven't been real peasants in Europe for centuries, they still exist in China, along with despots. They get threatened, extorted, and even need to set up night watchmen, as if law and order were non existent.

Many urbanite Chinese have done well. But back in the country, it is a different story. This book tells it as it really is. Unsung heroes are tortured, people die trying to do the right thing, and corruption is endemic.

Warning- This is not an uplifting book. My father said it was so sad, he couldnt read more than halfway. I read the whole book, but I struggled for a while, as it was getting too gloomy. But I felt I owed it to the authors, who risking life and limb to research and write this book, to finish it.

This book shows the truth about China, and it helped show me what happens when the freedom of expression that we Westerners all take for granted is not a normal part of society.

This is not a fun book to read, it is bloody, sad, lawless, power vs non power, poor is poor. most of people think China is developing so fast in recent years, but people don't realize that they are still about 800 million people live in rural area in China, they are still struggle with their daily life, and voiceless.

Chen and Wu are a voice for millions of farmers throughout China. Great insights into what life is like for the peasants and farmers in the countryside of China. It is hard to find many stories and reports about the hardships and persecutions which the farmers in China face and the political and economic system that they have to deal with. These are the people who make up the majority of China's population and yet you normally only hear about the urban areas and economic progress in China. As an American many of these incidents were hard for me to imagine happening within the last ten to fifteen years. I read this book while studying in China and when traveling in the countryside it gave me a better understanding of the places and people I encountered.

Will the Boat Sink the Water? is a series of stories that show the problems of peasant life in the villages and farming counties. The farmers are held down by unchecked greed among the village leaders, heavy taxes demanded by the layers of government, barriers between them and those who could help them in the National Government. The book gives you a vivid picture about how helpless the 900 million people are under the crushing weight of Communist China. They live the same as they did before the Revolution and, in some way, their life is worse. Millions are out of work, millions pour into the cities but don't have the proper papers or the contacts needed to get good jobs.

The rural poor make up most of China and yet rarely do they have a voice in either the government or in the press.

Has a time line of important events, with a focus on those important to the peasants, and an introduction by John Pomfret, author of Chinese Lessons. A must for anybody interested in Asia or in China.

This is an amazing book that sheds light a new light on the economic challenges of the world's most populated country. Very good, insightful and masterfully translated.