Immigrant Households， Land Reform and Rural Society： Taking East and West Sanyuan Village in Shanxi as An Example

[Abstract] From the Late Qing Dynasty to the Republic， the rural areas in the north of China experienced a radical change. High population mobility arose out of natural disasters and wars， with large amounts of people migrating from Shandong and Henan to the villages in Shanxi， where they formed a big group of immigrant households. The east and west Sanyuan Village in the southwest of Shanxi provides a good case in point. Compared with the indigenous households， the immigrant households were marginalized in terms of residence， family livelihood， marriage and political status. Although they made great efforts to incorporate into the local community， they stood little chance of rising above their lot. However， with the intervention of the communist revolution， especially the Land Reform movement， equality was realized not only on wealth distribution between the immigrant and the indigenous households， but also on the relationship between them. If we put the “residential rights” of the immigrant households in a prolonged time-span， we may come to realize that the Land Reform movement is nothing less than a wholesale solution to the multitude of social issues caused by population mobility since Late Qing and a reconstruction of social order in the rural areas. This would give us a better understanding of the significance of the Land Reform movement in the transition of Chinese rural society.