Chinese Village Life Today

"[A]n excellent record of the effects of Chinse-style modernization on families and relationships in a representative rural area...Anyone interested in the modernization of rural areas, in China or elsewhere, should read this book."

~Choice

"Chinese Village Life Today is a concise and persuasive read, and the author effectively conveys his findings from nearly 20 years of fieldwork. Among the book’s many interventions, three innovative aspects of it stand out: first, its analytical shift to the “rural” for studying migration and the world of work; second, its focus on the negotiation of “intimate choices” and how changing economic and political relations shape this process; and third, its longitudinal and multi-sited methodology that offers a template for other scholars researching social change in developing countries."

~Society for the Anthropology of Work

"[T]he book makes a distinct contribution to ongoing efforts in social science to respect the perspectives of marginal groups and to present the complexities of social structural transformation."

~The China Journal

"Beautifully written...Interweaving vibrant stories of the lives of Harmony Cave villagers with insightful analyses of processes of social, cultural, political, and economic transformation and sophisticated engagement with anthropological theories, Santos shows that it is still possible to write a rich, vivid village ethnography that is also contemporary and deeply intertwined with broader national and global processes."

~Anthropos