The Underworld of Rural China: Research on Rural Gangs on China's Jianghan Plain and Dongting Lake Plain

This book aims to provide the readers a better understanding of rural China through the particular perspective of the rural underworld. It proposes new concepts to describe social changes of rural China by comparing the contemporary rural society with the acquaintance society—the classic model for depicting the traditional Chinese society. The author’s down-to-earth fieldwork has revealed that, with a permeating gang influence, the society of rural China has actually changed in nature. Such...