• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.191-203
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• 2015

The purposes of this study are to explain the background and significance of the 'Farmers' upstairs'(農民上樓) phenomenon which has been currently promoted as part of the "New Socialist Countryside Construction" in contemporary China, and its positive and negative aspects, and analyze the limitations of 'Farmers' upstairs'phenomenon. 'Farmers' upstairs'means the building of concentrated farmhouses by means of reconstruction of scattered farmhouses here and there, simultaneously by installing cultural, social welfare, and environmental facilities where rural farmer also could enjoy the convenience of urban living. It brings, however, the positive effects such as the improvement of living conditions of rural farmers, the simultaneously expanding of urban construction land and agricultural land, and the new influx of population from urban areas, whiles the negative effectives such as the forced demolition of farmhouses by governments or real estate developers with very lower compensation costs for the demolition of farmhouses, the gap from the standard of living, and above all, the inconvenience caused by the living in a multi-stories building in the rural villages. As a result, it is pointed out that the ongoing 'Farmers' upstairs', promoted as a kind of rural movement beyond a phenomenon, has similarities with the Rural Cooperative Movement(農村合作化運動) of Mao Zedong era(1953-61), namely the People's Commune Movement(人民公社運動) finally failed.