本书是关于中国最古老农业区一个典型村庄全面而详尽的研究。这个村庄是作者的家乡，凭着对那里人们生活的熟悉和公正，作者写出了这一个中国村庄。家庭生活、村内冲突、庄稼种植和孩子游戏只是他所描写的乡村生活诸多内容中的几个方面。一个中国村庄是切近理解和科学精确的完善结合，是第一本把中国乡村生活各方面总合起来加以完全贯通和透彻理解地描述的书。该书和早它出版的《江村经济》（费孝通著）、《金翼》（林耀华著）以及晚它出版的《祖荫下》（许烺光著）并列为早期中国人类学的里程碑作品。

With the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic on October 1, 2009, China has presented a new face to the world. Over the past 60 years, Chinese society has undergone significant changes that are clearly reflected in literature, painting, film, drama and other literary and artistic works. In China, both the rich and the poor, the elite and the working class all celebrate the Spring Festival. Paintings depicting Spring Festival entertainments are one of the most popular and inexpensive consumables of the season. Before TV sets and inter became as popular as today, Chinese New Year paintings (including publicity paintings) were one of the most direct and biggest media for observations of China, which were able to reach millions of households throughout the country. This book is posed of 200 carefully chosen Chinese New Year paintings from 1949 on, and is divided into threetime periods: 1949-1965. 1966-1978, and 1979-2009. These paintings tell of the major events in China from di