Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village

More than forty years after its initial publication, William Hinton’s Fanshen continues to be the essential volume for those fascinated with China’s revolutionary process of rural reform and social change. A pioneering work, Fanshen is a marvelous and revealing look into life in the Chinese countryside, where tradition and modernity have had both a complimentary and caustic relationship in the years since the Chinese Communist Party first came to power. It is a rare, concrete record of social struggle and transformation, as witnessed by a participant. Fanshen continues to offer profound insight into the lives of peasants and China’s complex social processes. Rediscover this classic volume, which includes a new preface by Fred Magdoff.

William Hinton (1919–2004) was a farmer in Vermont and a legendary figure in the U.S. Left. He wrote many books on post-revolutionary China, including Through a Glass Darkly, Iron Oxen, The Great Reversal, Hundred Day War, Shenfan, and Turning Point in China.