COLLECTIVE RESISTANCE OF CHENGZHONGCUN VILLAGERS IN CHINA : A CASE OF GUANGZHOU, GUANGDONG PROVINCE

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the factors contributing to the emergence and persistence of collective action in chengzhongcun (literally known as “village(s) amid the city”) in China. Based on a one-and-a-half month fieldwork in Guangzhou, China, this study was designed to answer the questions of what triggered collective action in chengzhongcun and how and why chengzhongcun villagers could sustain their collective resistance under a repressive local state. While not denying the importance of the structural opportunity for collective action in chengzhongcun, rational considerations of the villagers and their cultural features were taken as crucial factors in triggering and sustaining collective action in chengzhongcun. First of all, rational considerations of the villagers had spurred them to converge and rejuvenate a social network which had long been weakening, while the cultural features embedded in the social network had strengthened solidarity of the protesters, leading to the emergence of collective action. Later on when the local authority repressed the collective action, rationality and the cultural features of the villagers had together led to labor division among them, which in fact helped to sustain the collective action in chengzhongcun.