Loading...
Title: Changes in China’s Social Strata, 1978–2018

Changes in China’s Social Strata, 1978–2018

by Peilin Li (Volume editor)
©2026 Edited Collection XVI, 250 Pages
Science, Society & Culture

Summary

This book highlights the significant shifts in China's socioeconomic structure brought about by the country's first four decades of reform and opening-up. It address a number of contentious issues, including: Is the disparity in income growing or shrinking? Has there been a decrease in social mobility? What is the size of the middle class and middle-income group in China? With solid empirical evidence and rigorous analysis, contributors make the case that social policies that advance social justice and enhance people’s well-being are needed to adjudicate tensions among social classes and groups. It is of paramount importance for these policies to ensure that democracy and the rule of Law are upheld, the government is transparent, and the public’s voices are heard and they can fully participate in social governance.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Introduction: Changes in Social Stratification and Their Impact, 1978–2018 (Li Peilin)
  • 1. Profound Changes in Social Stratification Under Reform and Opening-up
  • 1.1. The Working Class Is of an Unprecedentedly Large Size and the Migrant Workers Are a New Force to Be Reckoned With
  • 1.2. Farmers as an Increasingly Aging and Stratified Social Class Have Greatly Reduced in Number
  • 1.3. Professionals and Technical Workers Are the Major Force of the Middle Class
  • 1.4. Private Business Owners Have Caught Widespread Attention
  • 1.5. New Social Strata and Groups Keep Emerging
  • 2. Changes in Social Strata: New Characteristics and Challenges
  • 2.1. Interest Groups Are Diverse and Society Is Still Full of Vitality
  • 2.2. Overlapping Social Problems in Different Stages of Society Pose a Difficult Dilemma
  • 2.3. Profound Changes Occurred in the Social Classes of Workers and Farmers But Achieving Common Prosperity Is a Long Process
  • 2.4. The Relationship Between The Elite Class and Other Members of Society Must Be Carefully Addressed to Prevent Social Polarization
  • 2.5. The Risk of Problems Among the People Escalating Into Incidents of Social Disturbance Is Likely to Persist for an Extended Period of Time
  • 3. Current Controversy Regarding Social Strata
  • 3.1. Is the Income Gap Widening or Narrowing?
  • 3.2. Has Social Mobility Declined?
  • 3.3. How Large Is China’s Middle-Income Group and Middle Class?
  • 3.4. How Can Farmers Become Wealthy?
  • 3.5. Why Didn’t Mass Migration of Rural Migrant Workers Cause Social Unrest?
  • 3.6. Why Has the Supply of Public Goods, Including Education, Healthcare, and Environmental Protection, Become a Prominent Problem Affecting People’s Well-being?
  • 3.7. What Are the New Collective Behavior and Indirect Conflict of Interest?
  • 3.8. Why We Must Guard Against Cronyism and Populism
  • Bibliography
  • Development and Features of the Industrial Workforce in Modern China (Tian Feng)
  • 1. Key Development Since China’s Economic Reform
  • 1.1. Three Periods of Changes in the Size of Industrial Workforce
  • 1.2. Structural Changes of the Industrial Workforce
  • 1.3. Social Changes of the Industrial Workforce
  • 2. The Major Development of the Industrial Workforce in the Past Decade
  • 2.1. Key Compositional Characteristics of the Industrial Workforce
  • 2.2. Income and Expenditure of Industrial Workers
  • 2.3. Education, Skills, and Labor Contracts of Industrial Workers
  • 2.4. Industrial Workers’ Social Security and Perceived Social Class Identity
  • 3. Conclusion
  • Bibliography
  • Characteristics and Development of the Service Sector in Modern China (Fan Lei)
  • 1. The Social Class of Business Service Workers
  • 2. The Scale and Key Characteristics of the Service Workforce
  • 3. Challenges for Business Service Workers in Attaining Middle-Class Status
  • 4. Future Development of the Service Workers
  • Bibliography
  • Structural Changes in Social Stratification of Chinese Farmers (Wang Chunguang)
  • 1. Changes of Farmers’ Social Status Since the Beginning of the Reform and Opening-up
  • 2. Measurements of Farmer’s Social Status
  • 3. Current Status and Issues of the Farmer Strata
  • 3.1. Structure and Changes of the Farmers’ Social Status
  • 3.1.1. Population Structure of the Farmer Classes
  • 3.1.2. Change of Population Size in the Farmers’ Classes
  • 3.2. Income Distribution of the Farmer Classes
  • 3.3. Self-Evaluated Social Status of the Farmers Groups
  • 3.4. Intergenerational Mobility in Farmer Classes
  • 3.5. Relationship Between Farmers’ Stratification and Income Levels
  • 4. Characteristics and Development Trend of Farmers Stratification
  • Bibliography
  • Size and Mentality of Technical Professionals in Contemporary China (Zhao Yandong, Li Ruijie, and He Guangxi)
  • 1. The Definition, Size and Structure of the Technical Professionals
  • 1.1. Definition of the Class of Technical Professionals
  • 1.2. The Rapid Expansion of the Technical Professionals in China Since the Initiation of the Reform and Opening-up
  • 1.3. The Structural Optimization of the Technical Professionals
  • 2. Position of the Technical Professionals in the Social Structure in the New Era
  • 2.1. The Professional and Technical Class Is Economically Positioned at the Middle Level in the Social Hierarchy
  • 2.2. Technical Professionals Enjoy a High Level of Social Prestige
  • 2.3. The Technical Professionals Have Experienced a Commendable and Steady Rise in Its Political Status
  • 3. The Formation of the Technical Professionals in China in the New Era
  • 3.1. Class Identification and Stratum Identification
  • 3.2. Life Style and Consumption Mode
  • 3.3. Paths to the Class and Intergenerational Mobility
  • 3.3.1. Paths to the technical professionals
  • 3.3.2. Intergenerational mobility in the technical professionals
  • 4. The Complex Social Psychology of the Technical Professionals
  • 4.1. Technical Professionals Have a Strong Sense of Achievement
  • 4.2. The Common Anxiety Experienced by Technical Professionals
  • 4.2.1. Causes of the complex mindset of technical professionals
  • 5. The Important Role of the Technical Professionals in the New Era
  • 5.1. Economic Function: Pillars of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Drive
  • 5.2. Social Function: Engage in Public Affairs and Promote Mainstream Social Values
  • 5.3. Political Function: “Stabilizer” or “Disruptive Force”
  • 5.3.1. Maintaining the status quo vs. promoting social changes
  • 5.3.2. Efficiency first vs. equality first
  • 6. Summary
  • Bibliography
  • Characteristics, Consumption, and Social Attitudes of the Middle Class in Contemporary China (Zhu Di)
  • 1. Research and Definition of the Middle Class
  • 2. Scale and Demographic Features of the Middle Class
  • 3. Occupational Structure of the Middle Class: White-Collar and Blue-Collar Workers
  • 4. Consumption of the Middle Class in Urban Areas
  • 5. Level of Satisfaction with the Life and Subjective Identification of the Urban Middle Class
  • 6. Social Participation of the Urban Middle Class
  • 7. Social Attitudes of the Urban Middle Class
  • 8. Conclusion
  • Bibliography
  • Private Business Owners and Self-Employed Individuals in Contemporary China: Mix, Attitude, and Action (Lyu Peng, Fan Xiaoguang, and Sun Ming)
  • 1. Leapfrog Into High Growth From a Difficult Start
  • 2. Demographic Mix of Private Business Owners
  • 3. Status Identification of Private Business Owners
  • 4. Online Activities of Private Business Owners
  • 5. Self-Employed Individuals, Private Business Owners and the Business Environment
  • 6. Discussion
  • Bibliography
  • Education and Social Stratification in Contemporary China (Li Chunling)
  • 1. Educational Reform, Development, and Stratification
  • 1.1. Elitism and Market-Oriented Educational Reform
  • 1.2. Increase in Educational Investment and Opportunities
  • 1.3. Increasing Availability of Educational Opportunities Spurs Competition for Premium Options
  • 2. Education Disparities: Regional and Urban-Rural Imbalances
  • 2.1. Regional Differences in Enrollment Opportunities
  • 2.2. The Gap in Enrollment Rate Between Urban and Rural Areas
  • 2.3. Regional Differences in Educational Levels
  • 2.4. Gap in Educational Levels Between Urban and Rural Areas
  • 3. Inequality in the Educational Opportunities Between Different Classes and the Rich and the Poor
  • 3.1. Inequality in Educational Opportunities Between Different Classes
  • 3.2. Educational Inequality Between the Rich and the Poor
  • 4. Summary and Discussion
  • Bibliography

List of Figures

Figure 1-1: Changes in workforce size since the beginning of the reform and opening-up

Figure 1-2: Changes in the total number of employees since the beginning of the reform and opening-up

Figure 1-3: The numbers of employees in the manufacturing and construction industries from 2003 to 2015

Figure 3-1: The population percentage of the seven classes of farmers (2015)

Figure 3-2: Changes in the shares of seven farmer classes, 2008–2015

Figure 4-1: The size of technical professionals and its proportion in the employed population, 1980–2015

Figure 4-2: Proportion of men across social classes

Figure 4-3: Occupation groups with the technical professionals

Figure 4-4: Proportion of those with a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and above among technical professionals

Figure 4-5: Employers of the technical professionals

Figure 4-6: Average salary of technical professionals and the urban employed population, 2006–2015

Figure 4-7: Trend in the proportion of CPC members among technical professionals

Figure 4-8: Internet usage index for different classes

Figure 4-9: Proportions of those who think their live have been improved among different classes according to the surveys of said years

Figure 4-10: Proportion of respondents that often or always experience “irritation and anger” and “worry and fear” across different classes

Figure 4-11: Proportions of those with specific skills among different classes

Figure 4-12: Choices of supporting stability or change by different classes

Figure 4-13: The choice between efficiency first and fairness first among different classes

Figure 4-14: How different classes feel about social fairness throughout the said years

Figure 4-15: The intention and involvement of the technical professionals in political issues

Figure 5-1: Three major occupations in the fifth and sixth national censuses

Figure 5-2: Three major occupations in urban areas in the fifth and sixth national censuses

Figure 5-3: Occupational structure of the employed population in China, 2006–2015

Figure 5-4: Age of white-collar workers and blue-collar workers across China and in urban areas, 2006–2015

Figure 5-5: Average years of schooling of white-collar workers and blue-collar workers across China and in urban areas, 2006–2015

Figure 5-6: Household expenditure and its composition of middle-class and lower-and-middle class families in urban areas in 2015

Figure 5-7: Durable goods ownership rate for the middle class and the lower-and-middle class in urban areas in 2015

Figure 5-8: Pressure in the life of the urban middle class and lower-and-middle class in 2015

Figure 5-9: Satisfaction with life of the urban middle class and lower-and-middle class in 2015

Figure 5-10: Life goals achieved over the past three years till 2015 by the urban middle class and the lower-and-middle class

Figure 5-11: Participation of public activities by the urban middle class and the lower-and-middle class since 2012

Figure 5-12: Willingness of the urban middle class and the lower-and-middle class to participate in public activities

Figure 5-13: Rating of the fairness of all aspects by the urban middle class and the lower-and-middle class

Figure 5-14: Rating of the urban middle class and the lower-and-middle class on the performance of the local government at the current place of residence

Figure 5-15: National consciousness of the urban middle class and the lower-and-middle class

Figure 6-1: Number of private business owners and self-employed individuals, 1977–2016

Figure 6-2: The ratio of the employment in the individual and private sectors to the total

Figure 6-3: Trends of education and political status in a cohort

Figure 6-4: Overall changes in revenue and status identification

Figure 6-5: Year-on-year growth of revenue and status identification

Figure 6-6: Average scores of revenue and status identification

Figure 6-7: Clientelism and the average score of status identification

Figure 7-1: Growth trend of China’s funding in education, 2000–2015

Figure 7-2: The comparison of junior high school education received by respondents in different age groups

Figure 7-3: The comparison of high school education received by respondents in different age groups

Figure 7-4: The gross enrollment rate for higher education in China (2006–2015)

Figure 7-5: The comparison in the backgrounds of those born in the 1980s who failed to advance to the next level of education at various stages

Figure 7-6: The average years of schooling received by the residents of different age groups in different regions

Figure 7-7: The comparison of the average years of schooling received by urban and rural residents of different age groups

Figure 7-8: The number of years of schooling received by children from different classes

Figure 7-9: The number of years of schooling received by children with fathers of different educational levels

Figure 7-10: The proportion of admission into universities of children from different classes

Figure 7-11: The proportion of the children admitted into universities under the influence of fathers with different levels of education

Figure 7-12: The difference between the percentage of individuals with fathers from diverse cultural backgrounds who attend college and the percentage of individuals whose fathers have received a college education and attend college

Figure 7-13: The gap in the opportunities for the compulsory education between the rich and the poor (2010)

Figure 7-14: The gap in the dropouts of the compulsory education between the rich and the poor (2010)

Figure 7-15: The gap in the opportunities for high school education (2010)

Figure 7-16: The gap in the opportunities for higher education between the rich and the poor (2010)

List of Tables

Table 1-1: Changes in the ratio of industrial workers in different sub-groups, 2006–2015 (%)

Table 1-2: Changes in the monthly average income of industrial workers in different sub-groups, 2006–2015

Table 1-3: Changes in annual household expenditure of industrial workers in different sub-groups, 2006–2015

Table 1-4: Changes in the relative income of industrial workers in different sub-groups, 2006–2015

Table 1-5: Changes in annual relative household expenditure of industrial workers in different sub-groups, 2006–2015

Table 1-6: Changes in the average years of education of industrial workers of different sub-groups, 2006–2015

Table 1-7: Changes in the technical level of industrial workers of different sub-groups, 2006–2015

Table 1-8: Changes in the labor contract status of industrial workers in different sub-groups, 2008–2015

Table 1-9: Changes in pension coverage rates of industrial workers in different sub-groups, 2006–2015 (%)

Table 1-10: Changes in medical insurance coverage of industrial workers in different sub-groups, 2008–2015 (%)

Table 1-11: Changes in the unemployment insurance coverage rate of industrial workers in different sub-groups, 2006–2015 (%)

Details

Pages
XVI, 250
Publication Year
2026
ISBN (PDF)
9781636678412
ISBN (ePUB)
9781636678429
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781636678405
DOI
10.3726/b22762
Language
English
Publication date
2026 (April)
Keywords
Li Peilin Changes in China’s Social Strata, 1978–2018 reform and opening-up self-employed individuals private business owners business service industry structural changes working class social stratification middle class
Published
New York, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, Oxford, 2026. XVI, 250 pp., 58 b/w ill., 77 tables.
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Peilin Li (Volume editor)

Li Peilin is a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Professor of sociology, and Director of the editorial board of Sociological Studies. He is the author of Transformation of Social Structure in China: A Sociological Analysis of Economic Reform (1995), The Demise of a Village (2004), Another Invisible Hand: Transformation of Social Structure (2005), Ten Lectures on Harmonious Society (2006), Selected Essays by Li Peilin (2008), Social Transformation and the Chinese Experience (2013), Social Reform and Social Governance (2014). He is also the editor of the annual blue book Society of China: Analysis and Forecast.

Previous

Title: Changes in China’s Social Strata, 1978–2018