The Making of the Chinese Middle Class: Small Comfort and Great Expectations

288 Pages·2017·2.485 MB·English

by  Jean-Louis Rocca (auth.)

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Jean-Louis   Rocca
The Making of the
Chinese Middle Class
Small Comfort and Great Expectations
Jean-Louis   Rocca
Center for International Studies
Sciences Po
Paris, France
The Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy
ISBN 978-1-137-39338-8 ISBN 978-1-137-39339-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-39339-5
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To Hannah
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
My deepest thanks and gratitude go to Françoise Mengin and Camille
Salgues for reading drafts of my manuscript and debating my ideas and
analysis. Juliette Genevaz and Miriam Perier supplied critical help with
editing.
In China, the most grateful thanks and appreciations go to my colleagues
and friends. In particular, Chen Yingfang, Guo Yuhua, Li Chunling, Li
Peilin, Li Qiang, Liu Beicheng, Shen Yuan, Xiao Lin, Wang Min’an, Zhou
Xiaohong who gave generously of their time and their ideas. My students
from Tsinghua University deserve thanks for pushing me to clarify many
points and for helping me to improve my teaching. In particular Du Juan
was constantly helpful.
I also thank the people with whom I created and managed L es ateliers
doctoraux en sciences sociales de Pékin , in particular Antoine Richard.
The administrative staff of the Center for International Studies (CERI),
SciencesPo provided me with excellent support in many areas. This book
has been made possible thanks to the institutional and fi nancial sup-
port from: CERI, SciencesPo, Agence f rançaise pour le développement,
Ministère des affaires étrangères, Tsinghua University and especially the
Department of Sociology.
I am grateful to my children for their support, which was crucial.
vii
C
ONTENTS
1 Talking About the Middle Class 1
2 The Rise of the Social in China 21
3 The Making of an Ideal Class 69
4 The Making of a Lifestyle 117
5 Middle Class Politics 1 71
6 Conclusion 227
References 251
Index 277
ix
L F
IST OF IGURES
Fig. 3.1 Number of articles including z hongchan jieji 7 3
Fig. 3.2 Number of articles including z hongchan jieceng 7 3
Fig. 3.3 Number of articles including z hongjian jieceng 7 3
xi
L T
IST OF ABLES
Table 2.1 S ocial stratifi cation of Chinese society based on the
ten categories of occupation defi ned by Lu Xueyi
(Lu Xueyi 2004, 2010) 3 7
Table 2.2 C lassifi cation of Chinese society in three classes
based on the ten categories of occupation
defi ned by Lu Xueyi 3 8
Table 2.3 L evel of education of students’ mothers 5 2
Table 2.4 L evel of education of students’ fathers 5 3
Table 2.5 T ype of occupation (fathers) 5 4
Table 2.6 T ype of occupation (mothers) 55
Table 2.7 T ypes of occupation of parents (by social strata) 56
Table 2.8 D istribution of students according to household income 5 7
Table 2.9 D istribution of income among population (average
income per year per person) 58
Table 3.1 N umber of articles published with middle
property class (Z hongshan jieji ), middle property
stratum (Z hongchan jieceng ) and middle stratum
( Zhongjie jieceng ) in their keyword list, abstract and title 116
Table 4.1 W hat are the goals of life? ( Shenghuo you shenme mudi ),
multiple responses 1 36

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