Migration Patterns in Rural China, 1900s-1960s

Matthew Noellert, Hitotsubashi University

This paper explores geographic patterns of rural migration to shed new light on the distribution of labor in China over the first half of the twentieth century. This exploration is made possible by novel archival data from the China Rural Revolution Dataset – Siqing (CRRD-SQ), which contains life histories and kin relations for over 20,000 households in 600 complete rural communities mostly in North China. These data document how rural residents left their home communities for work and marriage, both temporarily and permanently, over the course of three generations. Preliminary findings suggest that around one fifth of the rural population and three fifths of their social relations had migration experiences, and by the 1960s most extended families spanned multiple villages, town and country, and in many cases counties and regions. Migration patterns varied by region, household status, and position within extended families. These significant levels of geographic mobility challenge existing understandings of modern Chinese economy and society.

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 Presented in Session 32. Labor Migrations