Between The Communities And Farms:the Evolution Of The Village Form Of The Central China

The intergrity of the urban area and the rual area is a major component in the process of urbanization in China, which means the modernization of the villages should also be put into consideration. Foremost character of the changes in the villages is reflected in the components of the rural area. As the trend of social division of labor and professionalization continues, non-farming population accounts for less and less in the entire workforce. The changes of the consitutes of the rural area result in the division of the function and form of the villages, which then causes the division of farming and producing from living and housing. On one hand, the rural population move into cities for work and living, therefore, the villages gradually collapse and turn into modern farms in the purpose of producing. On the other hand, semi-urbanized rurual population stay in the village, enlarging its living space, perfecting its living style, and as a result of that, the villages turn into modernized rural society. Still, rural lives are embodded with distinct regionalism and ecology, with the villages symbolizing the carrier of public space as well as rural living styles.This paper focuses major consitutes of the villages as the basic analytic resources, under the background of the urbanization of the rural area and the urban area in China. It adopts the theory of the division of time and space for the analysis of the prospect of the villages, i.e., modernized rural society and modernized produce farming. It probes into the changes of present villages by the method of ideal types division, thus connecting the theory and practice of ongoing urbanization and modernized village building. Based on village population scale and draining status, land transfer and use status, as well as new house construction and urbanization speed, this paper makes an explantion on the division of the village, presenting the advantages of two ideal types and the policy dilemena in confront. Modernized rural society and produce farming is the model that fits in with the national conditions in China, and it combines the national development strategy and factual rural and urban intergration.