During fifteen years of research on rural China, one runs up many debts. At the outset, I want to thank those who have helped me through this long-term project. No doubt, as scholars, we need money for research; but, more important, we need access to often closed rural communities. The most important of the organizations that helped me gain access to areas necessary for my field research were the Office of Foreign Students and Scholars and the Economics Department at Nanjing University. Since 1980, when I went to Nanda to do my dissertation field research, I have relied on the leaders and staff of those two organizations, and they have never let me down. No wonder Nanjing University has retained such a strong reputation for facilitating scholarly research on China. My friends at Nanjing University include Xie Naikang, Zhao Shuming, Zhou Haixu, Zhou Sandou, Chai Ping, and Zhang Rongcun. In Beijing, the late Ji Xiaolin was always supportive; I miss him terribly. In Nanjing, I met several times with officials from the Nanjing Rural Work Department and the Jiangsu provincial Department of Foreign Trade and Investment.

Governments often help their citizens do research in foreign countries and despite the burden I have imposed on them, the Canadian government and its cultural officials in Beijing and Ottawa enthusiastically arranged my long research trips in 1980-1981 and 1986. Particular thanks go to Don Waterfall, Mary Sun, Diana Lary, Ruth Hayhoe, and other members of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

The most important source of funding for this research came from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), which supported my 1986 research trip to China to study the changing nature of urban-rural relations. That 1986 trip provided the data for Parts II and III of this book.

David Zweig(崔大伟) is a chair professor of the School of Humanities & Social Sciences at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Director, Center on China's Transnational Relations. Member of the University of Southern California's U.S.-China Institute’s Board of Scholars.

He is the author of four books, including, most recently, Internationalizing China: Domestic Interests and Global Linkages (2002) and is editor of the forthcoming volume Globalization and China’s Reforms (Routledge, 2007). He is also co-author of “China’s Global Search for Oil,” an article which appeared in the September/October 2005 issue of Foreign Affairs. He earlier taught at Nanjing University, the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and at Queen's University in Ontario. A Canadian citizen, he has lived in Hong Kong since 1996. Among other things, Dr. Zweig is an expert on China's efforts to secure access to energy and other resources, China's economic reforms, the international influences on China, and Hong Kong's role in China's modernization.