From The Guardian:
Until a few months ago, 10-year-old Zhao Ai went hungry from dawn to dusk, despite the two-hour trek between his mountain home and school. Now he enjoys a free lunch with classmates. Like tens of millions of households in China, his family are farmers who live on meagre profits from the crops they can spare and wages sent back by relatives working in cities hundreds of miles away... The significance of their legacy will depend on how their successors build upon it. "There's been a foundation, but there is a long way to go," said Dorothy Solinger of the University of California Irvine. As an expert on the dibao, she points out: "The whole programme remains miserable and very, very stingy."

For the full story, please visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/05/china-golden-decade-rural-poor.