The Second Spring of Shannan Town

TANG SHUBIAO & LI WUZHOU

THE first town to carry out Chinas landmark rural forms that ushered in the household responsibility system more than three decades ago lies southwest of Hefei, capital city of Anhui Province. Since decentralizing, combining and putting companies in charge of managing its fields and appointing local farmers as industrial workers in this agricultural enterprise, it is now experiencing a second wave of development. Comprehensive efforts in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy are expected to create fresh prosperity in the region.

The town that embodies the new development pattern of Chinas rural areas is Shannan of Feixi County in Hefei.

Pioneer of the Household Responsibility system

A memorial hall stands in Xiaojingzhuang Village of Shannan dedicated to the household responsibility system that came into effect more than three decades ago.

At that time the peoples communes, in which cadres oversaw collectivized productive labor, were in operation in Shannan and elsewhere. It was a system that inspired little incentive to exceed production targets. Shannan resident Li Zuzhong, now 73, was the village accountant at the time. He remembers how the shift away from peoples communes happened, “During a drought in 1978, when villagers were starving due to poor harvests.”

Tang Maolin, Party secretary of Shannan District committee, first led a discussion on the household responsibility system in a nearby village in September of 1978.It was, however, Xiaojingzhuang Village, through the common efforts of 98 villagers who shared 153 mu of fields among their 21 households with the aim of individual production, that more or less brought the system into effect.

Then Party secretary of Anhui Province Wan Li supported the reform, making Shannan an experimental unit of the household responsibility system.

There was an abundant harvest in Shannan a year after the reform. That of wheat was double what it had been in 1978 – enough to deliver 9.9 million kilograms to the state as compared to the 500,000 kilograms the summer before the reform.

Wan Li went to the meeting held in Li Zuzhongs hut in Xiaojingzhuang Village to gauge the success of the reform. He recalls how, on seeing the harvest produce piled high in front of every household, Wan was convinced of the systems efficacy.

As mentioned in the book Start of Chinas Rural Reforms, “The reforms in Feixi County have helped change the management pattern of agricultural production, and had impact on regions along the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers and on the rural reforms in China.” In 1979, many provinces sent delegates to learn from Feixi County. Professors and experts from Peking University, Tsinghua University and the University of Science and Technology of China also went to Xiaojingzhuang Village to carry out research on its success.

Deng Xiaoping affirmed in his speech on rural policies on May 31, 1980 that reform through the household responsibility system had achieved a satisfactory result within a short time, citing the improved harvest in Feixi County.

Although Xiaojingzhuang had support from Deng Xiaoping, Wan Li, and other eminent Chinese leaders and was the first to carry out reforms, it was less well known in this respect than its later counterpart Xiaogang Village of Fengyang County in Chuzhou City in the same province. There are two possible explanations for this. One is that Wan Li asked Xiaojingzhuang villagers to focus on the actual work of reform rather than on promoting or publicizing it. The other, mentioned in an interview with Li Zuzhong, is that Li and his fellow villagers cared little which village was perceived as the first exponent of the reforms. Their main aim was to benefit local inhabitants.

New Path to Rural Development

Ranks of townhouse-like buildings in the distinctive Anhui architectural style of white walls and black tiles along wellpaved concrete roads with environmentfriendly street lighting greeted China Today reporters when they arrived in Xiaojingzhuang. They found that the rural library houses an impressive collection of book titles – paper and digital– on agriculture, science and technology and history, among other subjects. Also that the children of local inhabitants working away in cities are able to keep in touch with their parents through the Internet at the Childrens Playhouse, and that the village square is well equipped with sports facilities. All of these assets signal the shift away from a typical oldstyle village in China to a modern one, which suggests that its success can be transposed to central and western regions where cultivated land is also in short supply.

As Party Secretary of Shannan Town Zhou Zongbing explained, Shannans hilly topography limits it to 1.2 mu of field per capita, and it has no other resources. Reforms of years ago solved local farmers food and clothing problems, and all concerned did their best to develop and make the town more prosperous. Their calculations, however, showed that even with a harvest of 1,000 kg of grain per mu, villagers could earn no more than RMB 1,800 a year, and that after deducting costs they would be left with a paltry RMB 1,000. Farmers hence went to Feixi, Hefei or places where they could set up small businesses, or to other cities in search of work. This meant that couples had to separate, and that village residents mainly comprised seniors and children, a demographic phenomenon that engendered certain social issues. Meanwhile, the land either lay fallow or produced meager harvests.

As it was clear that the household responsibility system could no longer meet the needs of modern mass production, Shannan Town took the lead in 2000 in combining the land of individual households and setting up companies to manage it. The following year, Anhui Province, pioneer of the household responsibility system in China, formulated rules for the leasing and renting of land.

Since then, individuals and companies have used land in Shannan Town to grow greenhouse vegetables, breed loach(mudfish) and carry out chicken and pig husbandry. Of the total 4,709 mu of fields in Xiaojingzhuang Village, more than 2,000 mu are used to cultivate greenhouse vegetables and 500 mu to breed finless eels and lobsters, loach for export to South Korea, and loach fry for the domestic market. Specific vegetables are cultivated in 1,500 mu of fields, and trees for afforestation grow on a 150 mu stretch. The Qiangxing Company pays Li Zuzhong a rent of RMB 500 per mu per year to grow greenhouse vegetables on his land.

Village cadre Zhao Yonggang of Xiaojingzhuang Village told China Today reporters that upon renting their land, farmers can work at growing grain crops in this agricultural enterprise for an additional RMB 1,500 a month. More than 400 farmers work for such companies.

Besides carrying out this reform, Shannan has also developed its industry. Around 100 enterprises now support local economic development and also provide jobs for farmers. More than 200 farmers work in these industrial enterprises.

Party Secretary of Shannan Town Zhou Zongbing pointed out that Shannan Town has renovated old villages by constructing rural communities with the aim of improving residents living conditions and expanding the acreage of cultivated land. The government has allocated a RMB 50,000 subsidy to each additional mu of land designated to developing public facilities. Since Xiaojingzhuang invited Hefei City Planning and Design Institute to make an integrated plan for the whole village, it has built schools, roads and two-story buildings in local architectural style that have been sold at cost price to villagers. Local residents are also provided with water, electricity, telephone connections, activity rooms, and other public facilities. Former residents that left their homes and moved into new apartments of similar size have received compensation.So far, 81 households have moved into new houses, and 60 apartments are under construction.

Work at What You Enjoy

Triple outputs of grain crops in 1979 testified to the reliability of the household responsibility system. Li Zuzhong stands as witness to the success of reforms three decades ago and to the present land rental reforms, both of which have benefited his village and his family.

“The changes in Xiaojingzhuang Village are immense. Before the reforms of 30 years ago, few households could even afford tiles for their roofs, but now we have everything we need,” Li Zuzhong said. In 1978, Li, his wife, son and daughter lived in a three-room thatched hut. His offspring have since married and moved into two-story villas.

Li Zuzhongs son Li Liecang, now 50, lives in a tastefully decorated 150-squaremeter house with granite floors. It is fully equipped with telephone, flush toilet, computer, solar water heater and other modern home apparatus.

Li Liecang was playing with his grandson when we went to see him. He spoke proudly of his son and two daughters. The former works in Xiamen in Fujian Province and earns an annual salary of RMB 168,000 supervising 100 or more chefs, and has spent RMB 1.9 million on buying a house there. Lis elder daughter worked away from the village for some years and has since set up a clothing factory in Xiaojingzhuang Village that em- ploys local farmers and earns her a cool RMB 200,000 to RMB 300,000 a year. Lis youngest daughter earns even more from her mould-processing factory.

When we asked Li about his income he told us that he is a good cook and earns a decent living catering for wedding and funeral gatherings. With that and the takings from the shop his wife runs on the first floor of their house, they command a combined annual income of RMB 50,000. “I have had three cell phones and now want an iphone 4. But you cant buy them locally,” Li said.

Li admitted that he does not have much in savings because he prefers to invest rather than deposit money in the bank. Several years ago, he invested RMB 680,000 in opening a processing factory which last year brought him dividends of RMB 130,000. “But I dont buy shares because I know nothing about the stock market. Last year, I bought a 128-square-meter house for more than RMB 300,000, and spent another RMB 200,000 on decorating it. Its purely for investment,” Li said.

Li made his first fortune after the reform and opening-up policy came into effect. There was a shortage of grain on the market at that time, so he and a few other villagers bought grain from elsewhere and sold it. He then invested in pig and duck husbandry and later in free-range chickens before quitting small farms and moving on to industries.

Lis story is not unusual in his village. Many villagers who were previously migrant workers are now local entrepreneurs. Lis two daughters are among them. He reckons ten or more households in the village have achieved his level of wealth.

When talking about his dreams and ambitions, Li recalled that 30 years ago, having enough to eat was all he desired. After the reforms of the late 1970s, the common hope was for meat on the table. Now that they are wealthy, everyone can eat whatever they want, and particularly enjoy the organic vegetables that the village cultivates. When asked about his hopes for his grandchildren he told us, “I want them to be well-educated. We used to work purely for money, but we now know that money isnt everything. Its better to do things that you enjoy.”

We met someone in Xiaojingzhuang Village whose work is indeed a source of enjoyment – Zhao Yonggang the cadre mentioned earlier. Zhao was born in 1978, the year of the rural reforms. After graduating from Hefei University of Technology in 2000, he worked in direct sales of mechanical machines and cell phones. He then seized the chance that rural development offered to establish a small mechanized construction enterprise. “I helped turn the first spade of soil for the Shannan Town Industrial Zone,”Zhao said proudly. With only two excavators, his company made a gross annual income of more than RMB 1 million. He has since bought an apartment in Hefei and sent his son to the best school in the provincial capital.

After achieving affluence, Zhao Yonggang reflected on the significance of his riches. He then appointed someone to manage his company and applied for the post of village cadre at a monthly salary of RMB 700. Serving his fellow villagers made him consider ways of enriching each and every inhabitant of Xiaojingzhuang Village.

Zhao has drafted a feasibility report on the villages future development and submitted to the town government. The plan includes developing the villages ecological and sightseeing agriculture and, bearing in mind the villages role in historical rural reforms, promoting tourism and leisure culture. He has high hopes of increasing villagers per capita income from RMB 8,000 to RMB 50,000.