Abstract: In the 1930s，Fei Xiaotong wrote Peasant Life in China，an academic publication based on his fieldwork of Jiang village，upon the same work he later penned a story in English called Cocoon. The novel was an extrapolation of the modernization process in rural China. Fei always believed that in order to break away from the economic control of urban “rentners”，rural China must break with the original state of small -scale peasant economy in all the aspects of economy，social structure and mentality. Through a comparison of Peasant Life in China and Cocoon，this paper attempted to argue that Fei Xiaotong advocated an intermediate state of development. He argued that both traditional Chinese towns and trading ports were dominated by “rentners”，from whom modernity could not emerge. However，he acknowledged that universities were the birthplace of modernity （Chinese universities and cities were not of the same origin），and that rural China could modernize through a way of intellectuals going back to their hometowns to start industry. In Cocoon，educated urban young people returned to their hometown and engaged in business ventures with locals. The interaction eventually brought changes to those involved and ultimately reshaped their life. Baozhu，the heroine in the story，presented an intermediate state of this transition. She broke away from the confinement of traditional husband-wife relationship and family duty but remained loyal to family and had no desire to move to the city to pursue the freedom of individuality. This intermediate state was exactly what Fei Xiaotong hoped for as the way to the modernization of Chinese society. He regarded the countryside as a vehicle for modernity，nevertheless，emphasized that the totality of rural society should be preserved to protect it from falling apart. Small towns could act a key hub that brought the countryside into full contact with modernity but kept an organic connection to the rural life for those who had left. From this perspective，Fei Xiaotong’s theory of modern transformation can be seen as spacial modernization based on a ruraltown-urban relationship.

Key words: Fei Xiaotong, “Family Triangle”, town, rentner, modernization