Transformation of a Rural Economy in the Zhujiang Delta

Abstract

Dramatic social and economic change taking place in the Zhujiang Delta region has been a subject of extensive documentation. Much has been written on the growth and restructuring of the deltas regional economy, on its intensified social and economic linkages with Hong Kong and the outside world, and on its changing geographic patterns of urbanization and regional development. While the emergence of the Zhujiang Delta as one of the most dynamic economic regions has received wide recognition from scholars and the general public, the operating mechanism of economic and spatial transformation at the local level remains poorly understood. How has a rural economy under socialism been transformed after the intrusion of free market forces? What role is played by the state, the collective economy and the private sector in this process of transformation? Is the transformation process facilitated by the growtrT of market farming or rural industrial development? How has change in the political economy affected migration, land use and the natural environment? These questions are all open to further investigation.