Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2009
Scholarly interest in a cellular model for sectors of the Chinese economy dates at least to G. William Skinner's “Marketing and social structure in rural China,” published in 1964–65, but based on his field work from 1949 to 1950 and on a theoretical foundation developed by Christaller and Löch in the 1930s and 40s. New interest was sparked by Audrey Donnithorne's 1972 article in this journal, in which she attempted to demonstrate that China had recently “experienced an intensification of the tendencies towards a cellular economy,” which she claimed had been strong even before the Cultural Revolution.
* This Note is adapted from a longer working paper for which I thank Professors Alexander Eckstein, Dwight Perkins and Richard Suttmeier for comments and encouragement; Bill O'Hearn, Gary Swim and Lourdes Wan for research assistance; and Hamilton College for financial support.
1. Skinner, G. William, “Marketing and social structure in rural China,” Parts I–III, Journal of Asian Studies, 11 1964, February 1965 and May 1965.Google Scholar
2. For a brief introduction and useful references, see Chap. 5 of Heilbrun, James, Urban Economics and Public Policy (New York: St Martin's Press, 1974).Google Scholar
3. Donnithorne, Audrey, “China's cellular economy: some economic trends since the Cultural Revolution,” The China Quarterly, No. 52 (1972), pp. 605–19.Google Scholar
4. Ibid. p. 605.
5. Ibid. p. 610.
6. Ibid. pp. 606–609.
7. Ibid. pp. 612–13.
8. Ibid. pp. 605–606.
9. Perkins, Dwight, “Centralization and decentralization in Mainland China's agriculture,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 78, No. 2 (05 1964), p. 209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10. Skinner, , “Marketing and social structure.” Part I, p. 31.Google Scholar
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12. Skinner, , “Marketing and social structure,” p. 31Google Scholar. Donnithorne does not claim that economic and administrative regions are merging in China. This remains an unresolved issue.
13. A recent example of this usage occurs in Esposito, Bruce, “The Chinese economic model: a preliminary note,” Asian Affairs (03–04 1974), p. 242.Google Scholar
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16. Ibid. p. 608.
17. Ibid. pp. 611–12.
18. Ibid. p. 615.
19. Ibid. p. 607.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid. p. 611.
22. Ibid. p. 607.
23. Tachai: Standard Bearer in China's Agriculture (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1972), p. 7.Google Scholar
24. Ibid. p. 17.
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