The Role Transition Of Zhai Lao In The Process Of Land Acquisition In The Minority Areas

Since the third Plenary Session of the 17 th CPC Central Committee, local governments have carried out land reform attempts, and the academic community has done a debate on the land transfer Zhai Lao and the exploration of different compensation mechanisms for the protection of land lost farmers. In recent years, with the rapid development of urbanization in Western China, the minority landless peasants are becoming a special group which cannot be ignored in the process of land requisition. Miao village is a minority community with high level of cohesion.People’s daily communication is based on the blood and geographical relationship. Even in a natural village,there are different patrilineal kinship groups. The way they relate to each other is on the base of quasi-blood relatives such as maternal or sworn brothers relationship,by which a close social network could be maintained in the village. Zhai Lao is the core leader of the Miao village. Based on the field investigation of Miao village, the thesis explores the acting strategies which taken by the minority landless peasants and interest groups in the process of land expropriation in the southwest areas. Meanwhile, the thesis pays close attention to the game process between the two sides and puts focus on the changing role and effect of Zhai Lao during the process of land expropriation.The thesis is mainly constitutive of four parts. The first part combed the previous correlational studies about the landless peasants. Given the backdrop of land transfer system, the thesis discussed the disputes of land acquisition in southwest ethnic minority regions. The second part expounds the Miao traditional organizational structure and social change.While the geographical relationship weaken the interpersonal ties, the currently kinship and affinity strengthen the contacts among people as yet. Though becoming a group leader, Zhai Lao still work in Miao community. The third part is the main part of the thesis. In three phases, the thesis explains the action logic taken by the landless peasants and interest groups in M village. The results show that Zhai Lao plays a significant role during the process of land expropriation in minority areas. The fourth part is a summary of the land acquisition in M village.In view of the particularity of ethnic minorities, the experience accumulated in some developed region is completely not suitable for the minority areas for the fewer job opportunity or the singular social security mode. Therefore, the government should pay more attention to the resettlement of landless peasants in compensation while expropriating their land.