Work Journals of Zhou Shengkang, 1961-1982

In 1951, shortly after the triumph of the Chinese Revolution, Zhou Shengkang (1926-2012) became director of the Agricultural Machinery Station and deputy head and vice party secretary of the production brigade in Lianmin village in the north of Zhejiang province. He kept a journal of his work, making only brief and occasional notes during the early years, but for some reason, began full daily entries in 1961 and continued them until he retired from the position in 1983, the year the party-state dismantled the rural collectives. The 59 hand-written volumes remain in good condition and his heirs donated them to Fudan University. These two volumes contain the 21 years of full entries, in Chinese. The sparse early entries are available online. Annotation ©2018 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Zhang Letian is Professor of Sociology and the founding director of the Center for Data and Research on Contemporary Social Life, the Development Institute at Fudan University. He is one of the pioneer Chinese scholars researching rural social life during the collectivization period and best known for his monograph on the rise and fall of the People’s Commune system. Xi Fuqun, Ph.D. (Fudan University) is Professor of Sociology at Soochow University. His research focuses on politics and social life in contemporary China. Yunxiang Yan, Ph.D. (1993, Harvard), is Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Los Angeles. He has published three monographs, respectively, on gift-giving and social networks, transformation of private life, and individualization of society in China.