Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 4, 2024

Spatial Extents and Behaviour Boundary of Rural People’s Daily Life in Modern China

(Abstract)

Han Maoli

In traditional agricultural societies, constrained by land,villages and farmlands defined the spatial extents where villagers lived and worked. Meanwhile, the spatial extent of villagers’ social circles was shaped by trade activities conducted at nearby county fairs. Among these circles, the spatial extent of the social circle not only delineated the boundaries of villagers’ behaviour, but also, through periodic fairs, integrated participating villages into a common market trading space, constituting a common customer catchment. The boundaries of these catchments demarcated the boundaries of the villagers’ social behaviour, which encompassed social interactions such as marriage, grass-roots management and rituals. Depending on the staggered or overlapping cycles of the periodic fairs, a cluster of villages constituted more than one customer catchment. These customer catchments were independent, exhibiting little interaction with each other, existing as isolated islands across China’s vast rural landscape.