This book is about Han Chinese who dared to cross over the Great Wall of China, to make a life for themselves on the northern frontier. It compares family lives, the economy, and gender relations among Chinese herders and farmers of Inner Mongolia.
Preface -- Introduction -- Economy, Labor, and Family in Inner Mongolia -- Cultivators: The Chinese Way -- Chinese Farmers: Tranquillity and Middle Villages -- Chinese Farmers: Economy and Society -- People of Tranquillity -- More Farm Households: Weak Labor -- Pastoralists: Another Kind of Society -- Chinese Herders: Sandhill and Great Pasture -- Chinese Herders: Economy and Society -- Pastoral Families: The Haves -- Families at the Turing Point -- Pastoral Families: The Have Nots -- Conclusions: Ecology and Society on the Inner Mongolian Frontier
