Book Review: Ting Hsien: A North China Rural Community
| Date | 01 September 1956 |
| Author | W. A. C. H. Dobson |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205601100313 |
| Published date | 01 September 1956 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
229
notation,"
which
according
to him
embraces
"not
only
legislative
powers
but
economic
and
social
development
as
well."
A
third
one
is
even
more
emphatic
on
this
point
when
he
asserts
that
"self-government
will
have
no
meaning unless
it
raises
the
people
out
of
poverty
and
ignorance."
There
is
thus
a
pro-
nounced
tendency
in
this
book
to
view
self-government
and
economic
development
as
closely
connected
questions,
and
as
a
result
realization
of
self-government
is
seen
as
a
highly
complex
task.
Possibly,
Africa
Today
reflects
a
change
of
attitude
in
a seg-
ment
of
public
opinion
capable
of
influencing
public
policies
on
Africa.
In
any
event
the
book
deserves
praise
for
its
serious
and
sophisticated
approach
to
contemporary African
problems.
African
Research
and Studies
Programme,
Boston
University
M.
KARP
TING
HSIEN:
A
NORTH
CHINA
RURAL
COMMUNITY.
By
Sidney
D.
Gamble.
1954.
(New
York:
Institute
of
Pacific
Rela-
tions.
xxv,
472pp. $6.50)
Ting
Hsien
is
a
county
of
the
North
China
plain
with
a
popu-
lation
of
some
400,000
people.
The
population
density
is
850
persons
to
the
square
mile.
The
economy
of
the
district
is
not
untypical
of
the agrarian
economy
of
practically
the
whole
of
China-small
peasant
farmers,
with
a
supporting
non-mechanical
industry;
its
problems-typical
of
much
of
Asia-are
overcrowd-
ing
on
the
land and
low
per capita
productivity.
In
this
county,
Mr.
Gamble
and
his
Chinese
associates
con-
ducted,
prior
to
the
second
world
war,
a
very
careful
statistical
survey
of
the
economy
and
society.
This
survey
was
first
pub-
lished
in
Chinese, in
three
volumes,
between
1933
and
1936.
At
that
time
it
attracted
a
great
deal
of
interest
among
social
plan-
ners
and
students
of
the
social
sciences.
Mr.
Gamble
has
now
gathered
his
statistical
material
into
one
volume,
and
published
it
in
English,
thus
making
it
available
to
a
wider
circle.
The
importance
of
this
publication,
apart
from
its
intrinsic
value
as
a
piece
of
fundamental research
in
the
social
sciences,
is
that
the
type
of
information
it
contains-vital
to
a
true
under-
standing
of
the
Chinese
economy-has
now
become
in
China,
as
in
other
communist
countries,
security
information,
and
is
un-
likely
to
be
available
except
in
the
all
too
familiar
form
of
propaganda
percentages.
As
an
example
of
its
value,
there
are
the
most
detailed
statis-
tics
on
the
vital
question,
in
an
agrarian
economy,
of land
owner-
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