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In recent years, rural-to-urban migration has reached an unprecedented level in China and is posing severe challenges to both China´s economy and society. The impact of such mass migration on village development has been the subject of active debate in the previous decade. Living in local peasants´ households, the author has conducted case studies in three selected villages in the Hunan Province. She developed a detailed picture of the genuine situation in each village through observation of peasants´ experiences and analysis of a wide variety of accounts. This study develops strong arguments for why migration has failed to promote village development, and surveys the grim consequences of the prevailing urban-oriented development strategy in rural China. This book should be of interest to a wide variety of readers, including scholars and policy makers on rural development and migration. Furthermore, with its straightforward prose and lack of academic jargon, this book is also accessible to non-academic readers concerned about global development.

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Yuyu Li received her first PhD degree in History from Peking University, studying the processes of global modernization. She went on to receive a PhD in Sociology in the field of comparative international development at Johns Hopkins University. She has been a faculty member at Peking University for six years.

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