Abstract:
This thesis examines contemporary rural transformations in China. I suggest that a different spatial relationship among production, reproduction, and consumption is in the making, grafted
onto the urban-rural divide. A different urban-rural relationship is also in the making, shaped by
changing divisions and integrations of labor that go into production, reproduction, and
consumption. I argue that these two processes are occurring through a double commodification of
the countryside, which produces what I call “rural commodity” and “rural-as-commodity”. “Rural
commodity” refers to the ways in which products of rural labor are absorbed into urban-centered
accumulation processes. “Rural-as-commodity” refers to how rurality itself has become an object
of desire and exchange. These two forms of commodity collaborate to transform the urban-rural
division of labor in China to facilitate accumulation. I focus specifically on rural tourism and
media representations of new rurality to illustrate how these two forms of commodification
converge.