China's Emerging Middle Class

China's Emerging Middle Class
Author: Cheng Li
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0815704054

Decades ago, there was no distinct middle class in the People's Republic of China. Any meaningful discussion of China's economy, politics, or society must take into account the rapid emergence and explosive growth of the Chinese middle class. This book details the origins and characteristics of this dramatic change.

China's Emerging Middle Class

China's Emerging Middle Class
Author: Cheng Li
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2010-10-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 081570433X

The rapid emergence and explosive growth of China's middle class have enormous consequences for that nation's domestic future, for the global economy, and for the whole world. In China's Emerging Middle Class, noted scholar Cheng Li and a team of experts focus on the sociopolitical ramifications of the birth and growth of the Chinese middle class over the past two decades. The contributors, from diverse disciplines and different regions, examine the development and evolution of China's middle class from a variety of analytical perspectives. What is its educational and occupational makeup? Are its members united by a common identity—by a shared political vision and worldview? How does the Chinese middle class compare with its counterparts in other countries? The contributors shed light on these and many other issues pertaining to the rapid rise of the middle class in the Middle Kingdom. Contributors: Jie Chen (Old Dominion University), Deborah Davis (Yale University), Bruce J. Dickson (George Washington University), Geoffrey Gertz (Brookings), Han Sang-Jin (Seoul National University), Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao (National Taiwan University), Homi Kharas (Brookings), Li Chunling (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), Jing Lin (University of Maryland–College Park), Sida Liu (University of Wisconsin– Madison), Lu Hanlong (Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences), Joyce Yanyun Man (Peking University–Lincoln Center), Ethan Michelson (Indiana University–Bloomington), Qin Chen (Hohai University), Xiaoyan Sun (Beijing Foreign Studies University), Luigi Tomba (Australian National University), Jianying Wang (Yale University), and Zhou Xiaohong (Nanjing University).

The New Middle Class in China

The New Middle Class in China
Author: E. Tsang
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2014-05-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137297441

Based on interviews with entrepreneurs, professionals and regional party cadres' from a range of age groups, this book argues that Western class categories do not directly apply to China and that the Chinese new middle class is distinguished more by socio-cultural than by economic factors.

China’s Middle Class

China’s Middle Class
Author: Li Youmei
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2021-05-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000388158

This book is a collection of empirical studies on China’s middle class from top-ranking Chinese sociologists, discussing this newly identified social stratum with regard to the basic concept and scope of the group, its functions, formation, identity, consumption, behavior patterns and value system. As the first study of its kind, the analysis of most chapters is based on a rich body of empirical data gathered from rigorous large-scale surveys designed specifically for the Chinese middle class across megacities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The book traces the complex and dynamic formation process of China’s middle class from different perspectives while dealing with issues of social concern such as “rigid social stratification”. The findings shed light on the underlying logic of structural change in Chinese society over several recent decades, with significant policy implications. The book will attract sociologists, students and policymakers interested in social structure, social transformation and middle-income groups in China.

Middle Class Shanghai

Middle Class Shanghai
Author: Cheng Li
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021
Genre: China
ISBN: 9780815739098

In Middle Class Shanghai, Cheng Li, who grew up in Shanghai during the oppressive years of Mao's Cultural Revolution, argues that American policymakers must not lose sight of the expansive dynamism and diversity in present-day China. The caricature of China as a monolithic Communist apparatus set on exporting its ideology and development model is simplistic and misguided. Drawing on empirical research in the realms of higher education, avant-garde art, architecture, and law, Li's unique study highlights the strong, constructive impact of bilateral exchanges. Combining eclectic human stories with striking new data analysis, Li's book addresses the possibility that the development of China's class structure and cosmopolitan culture--exemplified and led by Shanghai--could provide a force for reshaping U.S.-China engagement. Both countries should build upon the deep cultural and educational exchanges that have bound them together for decades. Li concludes that U.S. .

A Middle Class Without Democracy

A Middle Class Without Democracy
Author: Jie Chen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2013-03-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0199324085

What kind of role can the middle class play in potential democratization in such an undemocratic, late developing country as China? To answer this profound political as well as theoretical question, Jie Chen explores attitudinal and behavioral orientation of China's new middle class to democracy and democratization. Chen's work is based on a unique set of data collected from a probability-sample survey and in-depth interviews of residents in three major Chinese cities, Beijing, Chengdu and Xi'an--each of which represents a distinct level of economic development in urban China-in 2007 and 2008. The empirical findings derived from this data set confirm that (1) compared to other social classes, particularly lower classes, the new Chinese middle class-especially those employed in the state apparatus-tends to be more supportive of the current Party-state but less supportive of democratic values and institutions; (2) the new middle class's attitudes toward democracy may be accounted for by this class's close ideational and institutional ties with the state, and its perceived socioeconomic wellbeing, among other factors; (3) the lack of support for democracy among the middle class tends to cause this social class to act in favor of the current state but in opposition to democratic changes. The most important political implication is that while China's middle class is not likely to serve as the harbinger of democracy now, its current attitudes toward democracy may change in the future. Such a crucial shift in the middle class's orientation toward democracy can take place, especially when its dependence on the Party-state decreases and perception of its own social and economic statuses turns pessimistic. The key theoretical implication from the findings suggests that the attitudinal and behavioral orientations of the middle class-as a whole and as a part-toward democratic change in late developing countries are contingent upon its relationship with the incumbent state and its perceived social/economic wellbeing, and the middle class's support for democracy in these countries is far from inevitable.

Rising Middle Classes in China

Rising Middle Classes in China
Author: Li Chunling
Publisher: Paths International Ltd
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2012-04-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1844640906

This key new book gathers together the latest research results from renowned Chinese scholars who have comprehensively examined the formation of China's middle class. The coverage takes in key background issues, socioeconomic status and sociopolitical functions, the definition, values, social attitudes, income and consumption characteristics of China's rapidly expanding middle class.

China's Housing Middle Class

China's Housing Middle Class
Author: Beibei Tang
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2017-10-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351630024

Home ownership plays a significant role in locating the middle class in most western societies, associated with market, consumerism, democracy and “people like us”, the significant features of the middle class for any society. In China, private home ownership was not the norm from 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party took power, until the 1990s. In the past three decades, however, there has been a fast growing housing consumption and private homeowners have become the most significantly changing aspect of Chinese urban life. In particular, the rise of gated communities has become a predominant feature of the urban landscape. Similar to their western counterparts, the gated communities in China exemplify “high status” symbols with enclosed and restricted residential areas, exclusive community parks and recreational facilities, and professional management and security services. But different from western societies where gated communities usually represent luxurious lifestyles only limited to a small group of people, in urban China gated communities have become one major form of supply in the housing market and one of the most popular and desirable choices for homebuyers. Private home ownership and residency in gated communities, altogether characterize the most significant aspect of comfort living and distinct lifestyles of China’s new middle classes who have successfully got ahead in the socialist market economy. This book examines the formation of “China’s housing middle class”. It develops a theoretical argument about, and provides empirical evidence of the heterogeneity of China’s new middle class, which underlines the relations between the state, market and life chances under a socialist market economy. As such it will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Chinese society, sociology and politics.

The Rise of the Middle Class in Contemporary China

The Rise of the Middle Class in Contemporary China
Author: Hainan Su
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2023-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9811950997

This book portrays the middle class in contemporary China with plain language and precise professional knowledge in an all-round, broad and responsible way from the perspectives of income, property, profession, education, consumption, investment, physiological and behavioral characteristics, history and development. It gives, in a logical order, the reasons for stimulating the rise of the middle class in contemporary China. It emphatically describes what the middle class is and what the middle class in contemporary China looks like. It also analyzes whether the middle class can rise in China and sheds light on the basic thinking, medium and long-term goals, main measures and current work priorities for achieving full rise of the middle class in contemporary China. As China becomes the world's largest economy, the new middle class will be the Chinese people facing the world; as such, this book will be of interest to sociologists, sinologists, political scientists, and economists.

In Search of Paradise

In Search of Paradise
Author: Li Zhang
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2012-09-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0801458196

A new revolution in homeownership and living has been sweeping the booming cities of China. This time the main actors on the social stage are not peasants, migrants, or working-class proletariats but middle-class professionals and entrepreneurs in search of a private paradise in a society now dominated by consumerism. No longer seeking happiness and fulfillment through collective sacrifice and socialist ideals, they hope to find material comfort and social distinction in newly constructed gated communities. This quest for the good life is profoundly transforming the physical and social landscapes of urban China. Li Zhang, who is from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, turns a keen ethnographic eye on her hometown. She combines her analysis of larger political and social issues with fine-grained details about the profound spatial, cultural, and political effects of the shift in the way Chinese urban residents live their lives and think about themselves. In Search of Paradise is a deeply informed account of how the rise of private homeownership is reconfiguring urban space, class subjects, gender selfhood, and ways of life in the reform era. New, seemingly individualistic lifestyles mark a dramatic move away from yearning for a social utopia under Maoist socialism. Yet the privatization of property and urban living have engendered a simultaneous movement of public engagement among homeowners as they confront the encroaching power of the developers. This double movement of privatized living and public sphere activism, Zhang finds, is a distinctive feature of the cultural politics of the middle classes in contemporary China. Theoretically sophisticated and highly accessible, Zhang's account will appeal not only to those interested in China but also to anyone interested in spatial politics, middle-class culture, and postsocialist governing in a globalizing world.