Toujia: A Possibility of Village Autonomy in Southern Fujian?

In southern Fujian, Toujia refers to the person who is the organizer of some folk festivals in the village, different from village head and recognized by the grass-roots self-governance. Is the possibility of village autonomy through toujia a realistic option? That is the issue addressed in this paper divided into three parts: The first introduces the responsibilities of the toujia and explain how they work based on fieldwork data. The second interprets toujia as a informal system and grass-roots self-governance from an anthropological perspective. The third examines if the toujia system can work as village autonomy. To achieve these goals, my research plan is as follows. First, it is necessary to collect as much theme-related literature as possible from journals and monographs, especially the latest published authoritative literature, and understand the mainstream views, cutting-edge concerns and research trends in this field. The second step is to understand the basic characteristics and typical cultural characteristics of villages in southern Fujian, and to understand the application of grass-roots self-goverance after reading literature. The third part will review the previous fieldwork materials and comb the relevant parts of the paper. Finally, the topic of this paper is discussed in combination with the theory.