Another facet of Wenzhou commercialism was its vigorous labor export. This also had begun on a small scale, under collectivization, through adroit subterfuges and official complicity.30 A 1990 survey revealed that 80 percent of Wenzhou males over the age of thirty-two had experienced migration during the collective period.31 Once the private sector had been legitimated, Wenzhou’s network spread nationwide, with sojourning Wenzhou merchants in at least thirty venues spread over fourteen provinces.
