3 - The Pursuit of Transitional Justice from Below

Summary

This chapter explores the changing nature of property rights over more than five decades in China through a case study of an individual family. Tracing the Zhu family’s demand for justice in the post-Mao era for the six houses it had owned and lost – the first five to Mao’s 1950s socialist reforms and the last one to post-Mao urbanization – the chapter notes how the post-Mao transition initially brought a small measure of justice when the family was allowed to reclaim their house and offered a token payment for their prior losses. This was undone in the rapid urbanization that led to the eviction of the family and the destruction of their home in 2005 to make way for a twenty-four-storey grand hotel that now stands in its place. The case demonstrates how the concept of transitional justice and limited past success in regaining property continue to motivate the family to engage in an ongoing struggle for justice.