Binding Development and Metaphorical Politics: A Case Study of Pingba Qiang Village in Wenchuan Earthquake-Stricken Area.

Through the field study of the tourism development and post-disaster reconstruction process in Pingba Qiang village in Wenchuan earthquake-stricken area, the current paper suggests that the social developmental style there is essentially "modern engineering" led by the government, which can be summarized as "binding development" that reflects some basic characteristics of the "China Model". In the operating process of this developmental style, a series of events of power and discourse games occur in local society, and the relationships between different types of participants, especially those between the grass-roots government and the people, undergo dramatic changes. The "development discourse" in the national mainstream ideology, while being utilized in clever operations, is transformed into capital for grassroots political games, producing a relatively new "version" of grassroots politics. This phenomenon is labeled "metaphorical politics". There are many notable relations between binding development and metaphorical politics. As the macro political system's derivatives in China, the former and its inherent characteristics provide a prerequisite condition for the emergence of the latter. At the same time, the latter reacts to the former through its unique operational logic, and furthermore, to some degree, has a "deconstructing" effect on it. Through these relations, we can detect some subtle changes and new noticeable trends of the grassroots political form in China. With people's enhanced awareness of their rights, bettered conceptualization of independence, and refined political protest strategies, China's rural political power relations are facing the possibility of new reconstruction, and binding development will encounter more challenges. Of course, the future prospects of these changes are still hard to be accurately predicted because they are closely related to the direction of China's macro political reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]