Cyrus Ho

Cyrus is a fourth–year student from Hong Kong who studies Economics with a minor in History. He is primarily interested in the urban–rural relationship and economic growth in the PRC. For his history senior honors thesis, he is studying the interactions between the little–known ‘Small Third Front’ defense program in Hebei province and the local rural economy from the 1960s to the 70s. Using historical data and local gazetteers, he demonstrates that the establishment of heavy industry and supporting infrastructure in the countryside in the ‘Small Third Front’ create a special case of economic transfer from the city to the countryside in a period when urban and rural areas were socially and institutionally divided. He investigates what the implications of that transfer were for the growth of rural township–village enterprises, which expanded exponentially in the following decade. After he graduates, he wishes to pursue graduate studies in economic history.