Cowboys and Cultivators

We know the Chinese as villagers who carefully tend small plots of land using family labor, marry young, want many sons, and live in extended families—"the Chinese Way." Now for the first time we find Han Chinese "cowboys" who raise dairy cows and herd sheep on the Inner Mongolian grasslands. This book, based on surveys and intensive interviews, compares family lives, the economy, and gender relations among Chinese herders and farmers. The authors find that livestock have brought new wealth and opportunities that change the Chinese farming-based way of life, and they explore how privatization has altered the distribution of wealth. Although Han and Mongols still have their own cultures, those who herd livestock share a common way of life distinct from farmers that are nearby.