Taishi Village, My Neighbor – Ai Xiaoming
ESWN has translated an essay “Taishi Village, My Neighbor” by Ai Xiaoming, which was “originally published in edited form in the Freezing Point weekly supplement in the Chinese Youth Daily, and then published in full at the Yannan Forum (note: the original has been deleted, but a copy is preserved here)”:
The first time that I visited Taishi village was on September 4. At the time, I had read on the Internet about the recall of a village official and the hunger strike by the village women to express their discontent. My professional specializations are women, gender and cultural research, so women and community development are related areas. Before school started this year, I was doing field research in the nationally designated poor area of Danfeng county in Shaanxi. But I had no idea how women live in the economically developed city of Guangzhou and why they had to express themselves this way.
I was also hoping that my investigation can contribute to the solution of this crisis.
