By Yang Allen, 06/18/2019. Over the past month, I have been to 55 villages in Ningbo. Before entering the rural sites, I was confident to observe different styles of governing structure, however, the reality proved me wrong. First, I expected to observe various styles and qualities of public goods with different levels of civil participation and various political partnerships. However, these Ningbo villages showed me another story. There was little civil participation and political partnerships existing in rural governance; instead, the government, both local and higher ones, played a crucial role when providing public goods in rural sites. Second, due to the government-led governance in Ningbo villages, the government normally provides local public goods and services. Each village enjoys a similar “package” of public goods and services, designed, funded, and installed by local and upper governments. Thus, These are unexpected findings that I am still trying to comprehend. In Ningbo, land seemingly has no direct influence on local public goods; however, it has been utilized as a valuable indigenous resource to bring economic benefits to the local people. Third, I did not expect strong collectivity in Zhejiang, given this region’s robust economic ability. Ningbo surprised me with its coherent collective economy. Each village possesses its own farmland joint stock-cooperative, which handles and manages the collective resources, such as land and mountains, for the village.
Although the case of Ningbo does not serve as a perfect case study for my original proposal, I did enjoy exploring in Ningbo. I arrived in Ningbo right before the fishing ban, so I tried some fresh seafood; the weather was perfect in April for my field trip. Most importantly, people in Ningbo are very welcoming and kind. I have met many common locals, who made my trip lovely. They are very open to me; many invited me to their homes, offered me water and food, and showed me around in the villages. A father of two shared with me his petition story and he is still fighting with the local officials; an uncle, who gave me a ride to the bus station, refused to accept any money; an old grandma welcomed me to her yard and who pointed the direction of the local government building until I couldn’t see her; a grandpa played fold music with his Er’hu (a Chinese traditional instrument). All of the small stories made my field trip. Thanks to ICI’s funding, I could see the lives of these wonderful people and experience the reality of rural Ningbo.