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Women, Public Space, and Mutual Aid in Rural China:
A Case Study in H Village
Li Sun
Bielefeld University, Germany
Abstract
As rural Chinese women’s social networks are restricted by traditional, patri-
archal gender norms, and poor geography and infrastructure, there is little chance
for these women to build new social contacts or even to maintain existing
networks. Based on qualitative data collected through participant observation, fo-
cus groups, and interviews in H village, this research indicates that public spaces
provide rural women a platform for the enhancement of social networks through
frequent interaction with other participants. It is interesting to find that strength-
ened relations and established social networks formed in public spaces positively
contribute to village women’s daily lives, especially in the form of mutual aid when
rural women need help during illness, need to borrow money for building a house,
or need an extra hand to finish the harvest. Thus, through public spaces, rural
women experience higher levels of mutual aid provided by the actors in their so -
cial networks, who can even replace the function of kinship to some extent by
acting as a “functional alternative.” For instance, during the agricultural busy peri-
od, friends from public spaces can help left-behind women with the paddy har-
vest, substituting for the out-migrating men who would have customarily per-
formed this function.
Key words
Women, public space, social networks, mutual aid, rural China
Introduction
Habermas (1991) defines “public space” as the external manifestation
of the “public sphere,” or the various autonomous public gathering pla-
ces and institutions (cafeterias, salons, etc.). Analyzing 218 articles and
books on public space published between 1945 and 1998, Staeheli and
76 ❙ Li Sun
Mitchell (2007) point out that a large number of studies identify public
space by its physical aspects, such as streets, parks, and squares.
Generally speaking, scholars tend to study public space as a physical
site, with a focus on its impact on culture and political discourse. Firstly,
public spaces are common sites for cultural sharing, constructing, and
exchanging among people (Abaza, 2001; Amin, 2008, Low, 1997). For
example, public spaces have a significant positive impact on the trans-
mission of traditional Chinese culture (Zhou, 2003; Wang, 1998).
Secondly, public spaces are the sites essential for citizens’ political activ-
ities (Hartley, 1992; Howell, 1993; Melucci & Avritzer, 2000; Irazabal,
2008). For instance, Rowe (1990), a historian of China, conceives the
notion of “public” (gong) in its political sense, such as the role for politi-
cal participation.
While public space has been the subject of extensive research, it is
rare to find studies of public space from a gender perspective. This is
especially true with regard to the role of public space for women in ru-
ral communities with poor infrastructure, a traditional, patriarchal divi-
sion of labor, and limited social networks. This article seeks to fill this
research gap by examining public spaces in rural China. In this research,
public spaces refer to places that are open and freely accessible to peo-
ple (including venues for special events), with face-to-face interaction as
an essential element. Although recent studies have included the virtual
world as a form of public space due to the rise of Information and
Communications Technologies(ICTs) (Zheng & Wu, 2005; Zheng, 2007;
Li, 2010), this research focuses on physical rather than online public
spaces, since rural residents in China, particularly women, have little ac-
cess to the Internet. In rural China, women’ daily lives consist mainly
of farm work, domestic chores, and daily contacts. Public spaces pro-
vide them with venues for gathering and other activities, and they think
of public space as an essential part of daily life, as it allows them to
exchange or receive useful resources such as information, goods, knowl-
edge, and entertainment (Wang, 2005; Cao, 2005).
Through an in-depth analysis of qualitative data, this research finds
public spaces have a remarkable impact on rural women’s social
networks. Not only do they strengthen women’s existing networks when
they meet up with old friends, but they also extend their social networks
through building new friendships with strangers. Such connections are
Asian Women 2012 Vol.28 No.3 ❙ 77
vital for village women since it is difficult for them to create new social
relationships in rural communities. Their social networks are limited to
inherited kinship or geographic relationships such as those among fami-
lies, relatives and neighbors (Fei, 1992). There is little chance for rural
women to enhance their social networks with contacts outside of their
hometown. Firstly, the culture of the Chinese patriarchal family con-
strains the household division of labor in rural China; women are sup-
posed to stay in their villages doing domestic work and taking care of
children and the elderly. Secondly, because many villages are located in
remote areas with very little infrastructure, there are few, if any, roads
that support motorized transportation. Many rural women have never
even visited the centre of township, let alone a city.
Therefore, rural women, living in relatively sealed and isolated com-
munities, have little opportunity to expand their social networks beyond
kinship and geographic relationships. However, public spaces in villages
do provide them a platform for the enhancement of social networks
through frequent interaction with other participants in these public
spaces. Utilizing qualitative data, this research explores the impact of
public spaces on rural women’s social networks. The focus is on the
ways in which these social networks can provide mutual aid, especially
during important events such as building a house, harvesting crops, and
dealing with poor health or immobility. The findings from this research
indicate that through the relationships they establish and maintain in
public spaces, rural women experience higher levels of mutual aid pro-
vided by the actors in their social networks.
Data Collection
The research site is “H village”, located in a mountainous area in in-
land China. H village is a collection of several clusters of houses with
a total population of 2,510 people, of which 1,594 are female. Due to
the climate and terrain, it is difficult for these peasants to sustain a live-
lihood by depending on farm activities (the cultivated area per capita is
0.057 ha). Villagers prefer to migrate to cities for employment. The
number of out-migrants is 650, mainly middle-aged men, which leaves
a large number of women in the village, referred to in China as “left-be-
hind women.”1
78 ❙ Li Sun
In 2006, I collected data in H village through participant observation,
focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews. Each of these
methods brings its own advantages to this research: participant ob-
servation provides me a vivid, direct and concise understanding of its
public spaces; focus group discussions help me grasp divergences and
similarities among participants; and semi-structured, one-on-one inter-
views offer me the opportunity to learn about interviewees’ individual
experiences in detail.
Participant observation is a strategy of reflexive learning, not a single
method of observing. “As its name suggests, participant observation de-
mands firsthand involvement in the social world chosen for study”
(Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p. 100). The researcher can be close with
a group and its practices through an intensive involvement with people
in their natural environment. During the fieldwork, I engaged in partic-
ipant observation in a number of public spaces, including a church, a
temple, several washing spots, and a teahouse. To be more specific, I
went to the Christian church every Sunday, and I lived with the female
Buddhists for two weeks in the temple. I did my laundry in various
washing spots every morning, visited the teahouse seven times, and par-
ticipated in different activities there.
A focus group discussion consists of a group of members who have
some similar characteristics (Krueger & Casey, 2000); in this case, wom-
en that visit one particular public space and discuss familiar issues. Since
most women in rural China tend to be shy and introverted, they are
encouraged by each other to participate during the focus group dis-
cussion, and they are open to talking with other group members in an
interactive setting. I organized five focus group discussions of 5-6 wom-
en each, in the church, the temple, a grocery store, the square and a
washing spot respectively. It is worth noting that the participant ob-
servation helped me to select various candidates to invite to the focus
group discussions.
Semi-structured interviews are flexible, allowing new questions to be
created during the interview as a result of what the interviewee says
(Lindlof & Taylor, 2002). Thirty interviews were conducted in total, 10
1 This group of women, whose husbands migrate to cities for employment, numbered approx-
imately 47 million in 2010 nationally, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Asian Women 2012 Vol.28 No.3 ❙ 79
interviews with local “elites” and 20 interviews with women participating
in different public spaces. First, I conducted interviews with elites, key
figures within the respective public spaces I studied, as well as one of
the township leaders and one of the village leaders. There are several
advantages to elite interviewing. For one, elites have a good overall view
of their organization (or in this case, their public space), and secondly,
elites know the histories and plans of their organization from their par-
ticular perspective (Marshall & Rossman, 2006). After interviewing the
elites, general information data were collected about the different public
spaces and the people that spent time in them. Based on this in-
formation, as well as earlier participant observation and focus group dis-
cussions, 20 “representative female members” of public spaces were se-
lected as interviewees for this research. These representative members
were women who enhanced their social networks through public spaces,
and in turn, either received help from other members or offered help
to other members. The number of interviews of members of any one
public space varied from two to three. For example, three interviews
were conducted with participants that visited the temple, while two in-
terviews were held with those frequenting the teahouse.
Public Spaces in H Village
In H village, there are eight kinds of public spaces: the village square,
the teahouse, several washing spots, several grocery stores, a Buddhist
temple, a Christian church and different venues for weddings and sports
meetings. Based on their main functions, public spaces were categorized
into four main types: 1) “daily life public spaces” include sites such as
washing spots and grocery stores; 2) “recreational public spaces” such
as the village square and the tea house address entertainment and leisure
needs; 3) “religious public spaces” consist of buildings for religious wor-
ship; and 4) “event-based public spaces” are venues for weddings, sport-
ing events, etc., which are temporary and not fixed.
Rural women in H village frequent these public spaces not only to
perform domestic chores, practice their religion, or attend a certain
event (Wu, 2002; Zhou, 2003), but also to pursue leisure and entertain-
ment opportunities. Because of the poor level of infrastructure in rural
China, peasants in underdeveloped regions do not have access to the
80 ❙ Li Sun
Internet and sometimes even television. They are more limited in their
means of entertainment as compared to urban women; thus, they go to
public spaces for leisure. For example, even if some women don’t need
to buy anything, they will visit the grocery store since they have become
accustomed to chatting with the female shopkeeper. Additionally, wom-
en in H village can find an emotional substitute by going to public
spaces: since so many men migrate to larger cities in search of employ-
ment, left-behind women visit public spaces simply to cure their
loneliness. In this case, public spaces are beneficial to their emotional
health (DTLR, 2002). A 58-year-old woman, Mrs. Zhou, describes her
experience as follows:
Both my husband and my son are migrant workers in Beijing
and come back once a year during the Chinese New Year
holidays. I am alone at home and miss them very much. One
day, when I walked past the square, I heard some laughing from
several women who were the same age as me, so I walked up
to them and chatted with them. I found out most of them were
also left-behind women. It is easy for us to understand each
other and share similar experiences. Afterwards, I began to go
to the square frequently. Although I have to walk about half
an hour to get there from my home, I like to be there, and
for me, it is the happiest time of the day since I don’t feel
lonely anymore.
Daily Life Public Spaces
There are two kinds of daily life public spaces in H village: the first
are the various washing spots and the other are the local grocery stores.
The level at which these demands can be met are rather limited in rural
China compared to urban regions; for example, urban women can easily
reach various markets and malls for daily life demands.
1) Washing Spots
Since only around one fifth of the households in the village have ac-
Asian Women 2012 Vol.28 No.3 ❙ 81
cess to running water, in 2005, the village committee (the lowest admin-
istrative level) decided to build several washing spots around the village
to facilitate residents’ doing the laundry. Every morning from 4:00 am
to 9:00 am, some women wash their clothes in a nearby washing spot
while a few others go there in the afternoon. These washing spots are
busiest during the summer (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. One of the washing spots in H village
Although most of the women live near each other and thus have met
regularly before, their relationships are nonetheless becoming more in-
timate due to the regular washing of clothes together at particular wash-
ing spots. They chat or make jokes with each other, and the washing
spots are full of laughter. As one woman put it, “As no men are present
normally, we feel free to chat about different topics exclusively among
women, such as cooking, clothes, hairstyles, etc.” Most women agree
that because of the interaction in this public space not only can they
perform their domestic work but also they are able to find some happi-
ness while they do so. For this reason, even some of the women who
have running water in their house prefer to launder their clothing at the
washing spot instead so as not miss this social aspect. Few men come
to the washing spots because most rural Chinese have a traditional view
of gender roles: women should take care of domestic affairs (inner),
82 ❙ Li Sun
while men should earn money for the family’s livelihood (outer). Thus,
if a man were to wash clothes in the public space of the washing spot,
others might frown upon or talk about it.
2) Grocery Stores
The local grocery store is perhaps the most indispensable daily life
place for peasants in H village. Because there is no market in the village,
women buy small amounts of daily necessities and snacks at these gro-
cery stores. Through my observation, it is clear that the grocery stores,
or more precisely the roads on which they are located, are some of the
most popular public spaces in the village. For example, dozens of local
residents (a mix of both women and men) get together at grocery stores
in the evening, not for purchasing groceries but simply for leisure, espe-
cially in the summertime. Because of the lack of air conditioning or fans
in most houses, people prefer to go out after dinner, as it is much cool-
er outside (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. People chatting in the grocery store
Asian Women 2012 Vol.28 No.3 ❙ 83
While there, men dominate the conversion, talking about national or
regional issues and sports. Few women participate in these discussions.
Most are quiet, and some engage in small talk, which tends to focus
on domestic affairs and gossip. When men are present, women have to
pay special attention to their behavior and words; thus, they are not as
open and free as they are at the washing spots, where all the partic-
ipants are women. One woman articulated the difference, “I can talk
and laugh loudly at the washing spots, while here, because there are a
few men around, I need to control my voice and try to be quiet, which
is the social standard for a good woman.” Further, the women are gen-
erally uninterested in the men's topics of conversation. Women have lit-
tle to no knowledge about these matters due to their low educational
background, limited access to mass media and the fact that their social
identities derive from their domestically oriented social roles as house-
keepers and cooks. As one woman commented, “Men like to talk about
different games such as football and table tennis, but I do not know
anything about these games such as the rules or the famous players, and
I do not care about which athletes won the championship either.”
Western scholars emphasize the fact that public spaces have positive
impacts on people’s political values; for instance, people can engage in
free speech in public spaces and share their political interests with other
social groups, processes that are important for democracy (Low &
Smith, 2006; Sorkin, 1992; Kohn, 2004; Mcbride, 2005). However, this
research shows this function of public spaces may not apply to women
in rural China, not only because they lack a political consciousness, as
noted above, but also because the Chinese state, as a non-electoral re-
gime, dominates the citizen’s political ideology and Chinese citizens are
not yet free to express their political beliefs publicly (Shi, 1997; Liu,
2000, p. 55).
Finally, the grocery store has a communication function. Due to the
high levels of men’s out-migration from H village, there is a need for
a regular means of communication between husbands and wives. In this
case, they rely on telephone. However, only a few households have a
telephone at home; thus, they regard the grocery store telephone as a
public telephone. It is a convenient site for women-left-behind to com-
municate with their out-migrated husbands.
84 ❙ Li Sun
Recreational Public Spaces
Recreational public spaces exist to fulfill women’s needs for a place
to go for leisure and entertainment. Women prefer to spend their spare
time chatting or engaging in some form of physical exercise. These ac-
tivities can be performed both indoors and outdoors, depending on
which public spaces are available. In H village, there are two kinds of
recreational public spaces: the village square and the teahouse.
1) Village Square
In 2005, the village committee built a square for the peasants’ leisure
on what used to be an empty plot of land. Although this location is
rather far away from where most peasants’ live, it was the only piece
of flat land available in the mountainous area. When the square was fin-
ished, some active women in H village decided that they wanted their
life to be more colorful and rather spontaneously organized themselves
into a dance group.
In the evening, the square is used by the dance group sometimes,
mainly made up of elderly women practicing a traditional Chinese dance
called “Yangko” (see Figure 3). We can see that the square, as a public
space, provides a site for rural women to transmit traditional culture by
practicing Yangko. All of the group’s members expressed how glad they
are to be able to carry forward this traditional form of dance. One
young participant said, “I heard from my mother and my grandma
about Yangko, which is not popular nowadays for my generation. As
the youngest participant in the group, I will try my best to practice and
preserve it.” Participants truly enjoy Yangko, but they receive other ben-
efits as well. Not only do members learn and practice the dance, but
they also cooperate with other group members, reinforcing a sense of
teamwork. These group activities have also led to the formation of new
and strong friendships. Besides those who practice Yangko, some wom-
en go to the town square for relaxation, to sit in the square, chat with
each other and watch the dance.
Asian Women 2012 Vol.28 No.3 ❙ 85
Figure 3. “Yangko”dance in the square
2) Teahouse
In addition to the town square, in 2005, the village committee decided
to create another public space where people could meet and enjoy
themselves. The location was a vacant old house that used to belong
to a local property owner before the revolution. After renovation, the
building was immediately put to use and quickly dubbed “the teahouse”
by locals. The teahouse offers visitors the opportunity to play games,
such as cards and mahjong, activities that most women enjoy during the
agricultural slack time.
Recently the teahouse has also become a space for several collective
activities. Upon acquiring a movie projector, the village committee start-
ed to organize open-air movie showings in the teahouse at least once
a year. Since there is no cinema in H village, and as noted, most women
have never been out of H village, the teahouse offers women the expe-
rience of watching a movie for the first time. One 75-year-old woman
told me, “I never imaged that I would have a chance to watch a movie
in my lifetime; I am very happy with such a public service.”
Additionally, the village committee has now started to organize public
86 ❙ Li Sun
information campaigns in the teahouse, on the swine flu pandemic, for
example, since most women lack healthcare knowledge.
Religious Public Spaces
It is well known that religion is unpopular in China. Being religious
is uncommon and going to religious public spaces is unusual (Zhang,
Conwell, Zhou, & Jiang, 2004; Jaschok & Shui, 2011). There are how-
ever, a number different religious buildings and spaces throughout the
country: those subsidized by the government; those sponsored by pri-
vate funding such as the financial contributions of wealthy believers; and
those where believers gather that are regarded as unofficial or under-
ground by the Chinese government. The last form is very common in
rural China. In H village, religious public spaces include a Buddhist tem-
ple built with private funding and a Christian church (“house church”)
situated in one of the member’s living rooms.
1) Temple
The local Buddhist temple was built in 1989 by Master Yirong, a rath-
er famous Buddhist in the region. As is the custom in China, peasants
visit the temple for worship according to the lunar calendar, which
means that they will visit the temple on the first and fifteenth day of
each lunar month, as well as on the birthday of Buddha. Most visitors
are from H village, although a handful comes from nearby villages. A
large percentage of these visitors are female.
Typically, temple visitors spend an entire day in the temple. Because
it is located on the top of a mountain, it takes quite a while to get
there. The Buddhists leave their homes right after breakfast, as the walk
up to the top of the mountain takes two or three hours. Most arrive
before 10:00 am, at which time the Buddhists will start their worship
by burning incense and worshipping Buddha (see Figure 4). At 12:00
pm, Buddhists will pool the rice and vegetables they have brought with
them and then cook and eat together. After lunch, Buddhists spend
their time chatting and relaxing until around 3:00 pm, when they repeat
the morning worship ceremony. Once the afternoon ceremony is con-
cluded, they travel back home. While some temple members travel with
Asian Women 2012 Vol.28 No.3 ❙ 87
friends or family, most come alone. The women visiting the temple gen-
erally are not acquainted beforehand but eventually become very familiar
with each other through their semimonthly visits to the temple. One fe-
male Buddhist noted, “Due to regular worship in the temple, I get to
meet lots of other Buddhists. I even know around 20 persons’ names,
and three of them are my best friends now.” The social networks estab-
lished through visiting religious spaces complement rural women’s exist-
ing networks.
Figure 4. Temple in H village
2) Church
Due to lack of financial support, there is no formal church building
either in or nearby the village. Thus, unlike the temple, the local
Christian church is not quite as easy to identify as a religious public
space, as people gather in one of the member’s living rooms (Figure 5).
Every Sunday, around 20 to 30 Christians come here to pray, although
occasionally there can be as many as 70. Women account for about 75
percent of the attendees. The oldest is over 80 years old, while the
88 ❙ Li Sun
youngest are toddlers and children who go to church with their
mothers. These Christians spend the entire Sunday at church on a week-
ly basis. Throughout the day, they participate in different activities or-
ganized by a local retired teacher, whom people call Pastor Chen. These
activities include Bible reading, singing, and lunch. As most of the eld-
erly women are illiterate, they simply listen to Pastor Chen reading and
explaining the Bible, generally from the New Testament.
Figure 5. Church in H village
Similar to the temple members, these churchgoers are generally not
friends or relatives before meeting each other every week in church, but
because of their weekly meetings, they know each other well, and their
social networks expand. As Mrs. Zhang described,
I was from another village and married a local peasant in H
village in 2005. Afterwards, I settled in H village and went to
church weekly. At the beginning, I did not know any other
Christians in the church. But after a few weeks, I knew
everyone and we became familiar with each other very quickly.
Asian Women 2012 Vol.28 No.3 ❙ 89
Mrs. Zhang can make so many new friends due to the intensive and
frequent interaction at the church. In addition, because the church is in
a living room, the limited space prompts attendees’ close interaction.
Event-based Public Spaces
Event-based public spaces are temporarily created by certain occasions.
In H village, there are two kinds of event-based public spaces: wedding
sites and the Peasants’ Games site. The main characteristic of an
event-based public space is that the physical place is not fixed but changes
according to different activities and actors. Generally, the public space
disappears at the end of the event.
1) Weddings
Since most of the young men in the village have migrated to cities
and come back only once every year during the lunar New Year, most
weddings are held during this period. Weddings are generally held in the
house of the bride’s or the groom’s parents. Although the house is a
private space, for the duration of the event the peasants in the village
regard it as a public space in both the way they want to use it and the
way they think about it (Staeheli & Mitchell, 2006). Therefore, everyone,
even strangers, can attend a wedding.
In rural China, a wedding is regarded as the most important event
for a family, and hundreds of guests (typically three to eight hundred)
will attend the wedding. The host is expected to prepare a nice lunch
for these guests, with at least twelve dishes, including pork, chicken,
beef, fish and duck. Both the number of guests and dishes depends on
the wealth of the family that hosts the wedding. The event usually lasts
for two days, during which friends, neighbors, relatives and (business)
acquaintances will attend the wedding and give gifts, commonly money.
While most people simply attend the event, close female friends and rel-
atives are invited to help with preparations for the wedding, especially
to prepare the lavish lunch.
The wedding is an especially important social event; because guests
have a wide range of different relationships with the bride or groom’s
family, they are unlikely to be acquainted with each other. Additionally,
90 ❙ Li Sun
the guests are likely to come from various villages, cities and regions
outside of the couple’s village. Because of this, throughout the wedding,
guests have the opportunity to expand their social networks into areas
that otherwise would have been closed to them. People find themselves
getting to know extended family or guests from nearby villages as well
as from far away cities, with varying educational backgrounds, socio-eco-
nomic statuses and professions. For example, while one of the bride’s
friends might not know one of the groom’s cousins prior to the event,
the wedding creates a space for them to get to know each other, and
build new social contacts. However, although one can make valuable so-
cial contacts throughout the event, their frequency tends to be too low
to build strong social relationships.
2) Peasants’ Games
Every year, the township (an administrative level higher than village)
organizes the “Peasants’ Games,” which take place over the course of
an entire day. Athletes from different villages vie for the prospect of
prize money. The event consists of various competitions, such as
tug-of-war, table tennis, chess, slow bicycle ride, 30-meter kangaroo
jump, 30-meter running on sand, and 30-meter running across the river
bridge. Athletes are divided into women and men’s groups and can
choose to participate in one or multiple competitions.
In 2006, twenty-one peasants from H village signed up as athletes,
while a hundred more, mainly women, attended the event to cheer their
fellow villagers on from the sidelines. The village committee was re-
sponsible for organizing the attendance of any villagers as well as paying
for their expenses. To prepare for the event, which had the peasants
quite excited, the village committee organized an intensive two-day train-
ing program for the athletes. Both the athletes and those who cheered
them on later commented that their participating in the Games was very
valuable. In the words of Mrs. Liu:
The Peasants’ Games provided me with a unique opportunity
to meet and get to know people from other villages. I have
made three friends from other villages during the Games.
Although now we could not meet each other frequently, we
Asian Women 2012 Vol.28 No.3 ❙ 91
still keep in touch though telephone and sometimes exchange
useful information such as agricultural knowledge.
From the above, it is noteworthy that four out of the eight public
spaces in H village have been built or organized by the government, in-
cluding daily life public spaces (the washing spots), recreational public
spaces (the village square and teahouse), and event-based public spaces
(the peasants’ games). It is interesting to note that religious public space
is the only type of public space not prompted by the government, and
villagers have to arrange public spaces by themselves for religious
practice. In addition, none of village leaders go to religious public spaces
since it is a widely known principle that members of the communist
party of China are not allowed to have any religion, let alone participate
in religious activities.
It is also evident that the government built these public spaces in
2005 and 2006, which is due to the policy of “new socialist countryside
construction” launched in 2005, since one of this policy’s measures is
to provide funds to increase construction of infrastructure and public
services in rural areas. In H village, the village committee is comprised
of five members (i.e. village leaders), four males and one female, who
not only engage in the planning of these public spaces and having them
built, but also visit these public spaces from time to time like ordinary
residents. It is rare to find rural women develop strong relations with
the village leaders through public spaces. While on the one hand, as
noted, women are not used to being active and open in the presence
of men, and since village leaders are commonly male, rural women are
normally quiet and have little interaction with village leaders when they
visit public spaces. On the other hand, many rural residents still regard
the government (i.e. village leaders) as their parents (fumu guan) and as
they have never considered themselves to be on an equal basis with the
village leaders (Li & Wu, 1999, p. 165), rural residents, especially village
women, would not presume to include village leaders in their friendship
network.
92 ❙ Li Sun
Mutual Aid as a Result of the Enhancement of Social Networks
through Public Spaces
Public spaces provide a platform and opportunity for women in rural
Chinese villages to maintain, enhance and expand their social networks.
Although these new or strengthened social ties positively influence their
daily lives, the contribution of expanded social networks is most ob-
vious in times of need. As Cattell, Dines, Gesler and Curtis (2008) have
pointed out, public spaces bring people together; they are places where
not only friendships but also support networks are created. My ob-
servations, focus groups and interviews reveal that new relationships
forged in public spaces foster physical or emotional support and
co-operation. In short, enhanced social networks allow for greater levels
of mutual aid among the village women. Three important dimensions
along which this support takes place were identified: “mutual aid during
illness”, “mutual aid during house construction”, and “mutual aid during
the agricultural busy season.”
Mutual Aid during Illness
In general, Chinese hospitals offer limited healthcare to patients; for
example, there is no catering service in most hospitals. Thus, it is rare
to find a patient staying in the hospital alone, since family or relatives
are normally present to look after the patient by serving meals and as-
sisting with the treatment when necessary. Due to the high cost of hos-
pitals, most villagers choose to return home for recuperation after stay-
ing in the hospital only for a short period. In rural communities, when
a peasant becomes ill, friends will visit or even offer to take care of
the patient at the hospital or at home. Although they do not customarily
bring any gifts, the emotional and physical assistance alone can make
the patient feel better. As observed by Stafford, De Silva, Stansfeld and
Marmot (2008), contact with friends is universally important for people’s
health, especially for those living in deprived households.
During my fieldwork, I often came across groups of friends that
knew each other through public spaces who were on their way to visit
or look after a hospital patient. Friends that knew each other from reli-
gious and daily life public spaces were most likely to do so. Friendships
Asian Women 2012 Vol.28 No.3 ❙ 93
formed in recreational and event-based public spaces were less likely to
lead to any visiting of patients. Based on the characteristics of the dif-
ferent types of public spaces, the level of mutual aid during illness
seems closely related to the location of actors as well as the interaction
frequency. In the case of the church, the temple, the washing spots and
the grocery shops, actors are likely to be from the same village or even
neighborhood and thus it is convenient for them to visit ill friends.
They are also likely to meet more frequently and thus have stronger
friendships. On the other hand, friends who know each other only from
weddings or the Peasants’ Games meet only occasionally and are gen-
erally acquaintances. Further, they are more likely to come from outside
the village, so it would cost significantly more time and money to visit
an ill friend. The following story of Mrs. Deng vividly shows how social
networks formed in public spaces can assist rural women in times of
illness:
Mrs. Deng (62 years old): In June 2005, Deng fell down
when she was walking in the forest, resulting in severe
fractures in her right hand. Her husband had been suffering
from kidney stones for several years now, and he could not
perform any heavy manual labor. Her son and daughter could
not help either as they were working in Shanghai more than
650 km away. Ergo, the unfortunate situation was that there
was no one to take care of Deng and her husband. To make
matters worse, Deng injured herself during the rice harvest
season, which was a source of great stress and worrying.
Deng is a Buddhist and she went to temple regularly.
However, after her accident, she could not visit the temple.
When other Buddhists realized that Deng had not gone to the
temple for a long time, two of them went to Deng’s house to
investigate the reason why this was so. Once they were aware
of the situation of Deng and her family, six Buddhists went
to Deng’s house the next day. These six Buddhists were good
friends of Deng, who had met each other in the temple. They
spent one whole day in Deng’s field to help her with the rice
94 ❙ Li Sun
paddy harvest. After a busy day, they finished all the harvest
work. Deng later said that if no one came to help her, she had
planned to hire workers to harvest the paddy, since her son
and daughter could not take a few days off from work without
the risk of being fired. If she would have hired workers, these
would have cost 30 yuan per day (at the time, 6.8 yuan=1 US
dollar) in H village. So it would have cost her 180 yuan to hire
the workers, which is no small sum for her.
Additionally, friends who Deng had met by doing the laundry
at the washing spot helped Deng wash her clothes, which was
a lot of work during the summertime as Deng did not own
an air-conditioner or even a fan to keep the house cool. They
took turns washing Deng’s and her husband’s clothes for more
than two months while Deng recovered from her injuries.
Deng said she greatly appreciated the help from these
friendships, which would not have been possible without the
temple and the washing spot.
Mutual Aid during House Construction
As living standards improve due to the remittances sent by migrants,
some peasants who live in grass- or tile-roofed houses decide to build
a two- or three-story brick and cement house on a foundation. In rural
areas, house construction is an important occasion and has the same im-
pact as a wedding. Friendships established in public spaces could result
in peasants helping each other with house construction in different
ways. For one, friends might help each other through manual labor, en-
gaging in the actual construction of the house. Alternatively, they may
offer a loan with which to help finance the building project.
Among the women I interviewed, few friends are able to give manual
labor assistance, as they are mostly middle-aged or elderly. As men-
tioned earlier, the village is situated in a mountainous area and the infra-
structure is poor; there is not enough of a road for a car to reach a
peasant’s house. Villagers would have to carry heavy bags of cement and
lime uphill and on foot, not a task most of these women could physi-
Asian Women 2012 Vol.28 No.3 ❙ 95
cally do even if they wanted to. While peasants often hope to hire a
carpenter or craftsperson who has experience with building a house in
rural areas, due to the low average income and savings, they cannot af-
ford these extra expenditures. Luckily, while most friends may not be
able to provide physical aid, they are very happy to lend small sums of
money. Being poor peasants themselves, they will not be able to lend
more than one or two hundred yuan, but drawing upon an entire social
network over the time it takes to build a house, peasants are able to
cover the costs of house construction. Interestingly enough, peasants do
not ask for any written contract when they lend or borrow money, and
as such, there is no specific date on which to repay the loan. Coleman
(1990) states: “[T]rust is an action that involves a voluntary transfer of
resources (physical, financial, intellectual, or temporal) from the truster
to the trustee with no real commitment from the trustee.” In the case
of house construction in H village, it is clear that the trust level between
friends is quite high. The following experience by Mrs. Yang is one ex-
ample of how friendships formed in public spaces may prove invaluable
when facing problems during house construction:
Mrs. Yang (42 years old): In 2005, Yang built a new
two-story house, approximately 250 square meters in total.
However, when it was near the date of completion, she could
not finish the house construction due to financial problems.
Yang is a Christian and goes to church every Sunday. When
the following Sunday she told the other church members about
this problem, they asked her how much money she needed to
borrow to finish the house and promised that they would
come up with the needed funds. A few days later, several
church members visited Yang’s house with 2,300 yuan, which
had been collected from the local Christians, all of whom had
lent 100 yuan each, except for one member who was relatively
well off and lent 300 yuan, while two members that lived
under the poverty line could not afford to lend any money.
Yang was very grateful for these friends’ help, and promised
that she would pay back the money as soon as possible, to
96 ❙ Li Sun
which her friends replied that she should take her time and
repay them whenever she could afford to. None of the friends
asked for a contract from Yang.
Mutual Aid during the Agricultural Busy Season
In the village, peasants are busiest from June to August, when they
have to do the most agricultural work. Due to the large number of men
that have migrated to cities for work, there is a huge labor shortage in
the village during the harvest. H village is dominated by the so-called
“386199” group, which applies to women, children, and the elderly. The
name of the group derives from the fact that March 8 is Women’s Day,
June 1 is Children’s Day, and the ninth day of the ninth lunar month
is “Respect the Elderly” Day in China) (Bai & Li, 2008, p. 97). Most
members of the “386199” group are not well suited to engage in agri-
cultural production. To finish the work in spite of this shortage, peas-
ants will hire laborers to help them with the harvest, although this is
costly.
During the interviews, female villagers were asked whether friends
that they knew through public spaces would help each other during the
harvest season. I found that only a minority help friends during the agri-
cultural busy season. One reason for this is the short interval between
the sowing and the harvest of a rice paddy; peasants must finish the
work in just 20 days. As such, each household is generally too busy fin-
ishing its own work to have any time to help others. However, those
who have fewer paddies to sow and harvest were willing to offer to
help other people after they finished their own work.
As with mutual aid during illness, those that were able to help friends
that they had met through public spaces during the busy season knew
each other from the temple, the church, the washing spots, or grocery
stores. They appear more inclined to help due to the high frequency of
interaction in these public spaces. Since increased interactive activities
promote stronger mutual feelings, friends from these public places will
go further to provide mutual aid. In fact, it would seem that, at least
in this particular rural Chinese community, friends that regularly meet
in public spaces have relationships that have exceeded the level of
“friend” and even in some cases, that of “kinship.” This closeness has
Asian Women 2012 Vol.28 No.3 ❙ 97
a direct impact on the livelihood of women because such friendships
can replace the function of kinship, which is missing due to out-
migration during the harvest time. This kind of social network has thus
played the role of social support for peasants, becoming a “functional
alternative.” The case of Mrs. Zhang shows how social networks formed
in public spaces can lead to offers of assistance and advice when she
found herself is in need of a helping hand during harvest time.
Mrs. Zhang (26 years old): Zhang went to church every
Sunday. During the agricultural busy season of 2006, Zhang
had recently given birth to a baby with very poor health that
required much care, and she had no time to harvest her rice
paddy. With Zhang at home, her husband, suffering from a
hand disability, is not able to do all the work. After finding out
about their problem, some friends from church came to
Zhang´s house to help them with the paddy harvest. They also
gave the young couple some valuable suggestions on how to
take care of the newborn baby. Zhang felt very grateful for her
friends´ help and expressed that the church was not only a
place to practice one’s beliefs but also building friendships. She
felt that the latter was especially important for her since she
came from outside the village and had few social networks in
H village. She regarded these friends from the Sunday church
meetings as her “family away from home,” with which she had
close and intimate relationships.
Conclusion
In H village, public spaces not only meet the demand for suitable
physical locations for religious activities, leisure, and domestic chores
but also provide a platform for women to enhance and expand their so-
cial networks. Based on qualitative data collected through participant ob-
servation, focus groups, and interviews, this research has sought to ex-
plore the importance of public spaces in the development of rural wom-
en’s social networks and to highlight how these social networks foster
98 ❙ Li Sun
the exchange of mutual aid during illness, house construction, and the
agricultural busy season.
Because rural Chinese women’s social networks are restricted by tradi-
tional, patriarchal gender norms and poor geography and infrastructure,
there is little chance for them to build new social contacts or even to
maintain existing networks. This research shows public spaces can pro-
vide them such opportunities. In H village, there are eight kinds of pub-
lic spaces, which are categorized into four types according to their main
functions: daily life public spaces (washing spots and grocery stores),
recreational public spaces (the square and teahouse), religious public
spaces (the temple and the church), and event-based public spaces (sites
for weddings and sporting events). Rural women make valuable social
contacts and maintain existing networks through face-to-face interaction
with other members in these public spaces. For example, women can
meet other Buddhists during their regular worship at the local temple,
and it is common to find they build new friendships there. In washing
spots, women have close chats while doing the laundry, which strength-
ens their relationships.
Strong friendships and enhanced social networks formed in public
spaces positively contribute to women’s daily lives, as well as in times
of need, especially in the form of mutual assistance and co-operation
when they need to borrow money for building a house, need help dur-
ing illness, or need an extra hand to finish the harvest. I also found that
while friendships established and maintained in religious public spaces
are most likely to provide mutual aid in times of need, women who
know each other from daily life and recreational public spaces could
count on each other to a certain extent, and those who meet in
event-based public space are least likely to help each other. I argue that
these findings are due to the fact that women have more frequent, regu-
lar and closer interaction with each other in religious public spaces,
which in turn promotes stronger mutual feelings and the desire to help.
Therefore, the enhanced social networks that arise from these public
spaces are more likely to translate into the provision of mutual aid,
which can even replace the function of kinship to some extent, acting
as a “functional alternative.” For instance, during the agricultural busy
period, friends from public spaces can help left-behind women with the
paddy harvest, substituting for this function of out-migrating men.
Asian Women 2012 Vol.28 No.3 ❙ 99
In brief, public spaces have a significant impact on rural women’s so-
cial networks, which in turn assist their life and works. Thus, it is im-
portant to promote public spaces in rural China. With the im-
plementation of the new socialist countryside construction policy since
2005, the government of H village has built several public spaces to sat-
isfy rural residents’ daily demands such as the need for washing spots
and a village square. It is interesting to note that religious public spaces
are the only type of public space not supported by the government al-
though this research finds it plays an essential role in believers’ religious
practice and friends from the church or the temple are more likely to
help each other than any other type of public space.
100 ❙ Li Sun
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Biographical note: Li Sun is a Ph. D. candidate at the department of
sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany. Her research focuses on Chinese
rural women and farmers’ rural-urban migration in contemporary China.
E-mail: li.sun@uni-bielefeld.de
