The present book represents a most authentic and up-to-date study of the subject by Professor Fei Hsiao Tung, a Chinese authority in the field, and members of his research groups. Professor Fei first became aware of the existence of small towns as an independent social entity and their far-reaching significance to the entire society during field study in the 1930s in Kaixian’gong Village in Wujiang County of southern Jiangsu Province. It had been his long-cherished hope that he could one day expand his research on individual villages to cover entire areas with small towns as their centres. However his chance for such a comprehensive and systematic study did not come until 1983. This research project on small towns is, therefore, his “dream come true.”