While conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Yunnan province in 2009, I discovered a new vegetable: the cabbage-turned-turnip. Villagers in Baocun explained that after the town’s fertilizer plants began extracting and processing phosphorous, their cabbages began to grow very long roots, resembling turnips, as they adapted to the new polluted environment. Bird’s eye view of local industries, … Continue reading Resigned Activism: Rural China’s Quiet Environmentalism