Class and Social Stratification in Post-Revolution China

by Edited by James L. Watson

• ISBN13: 9780521143844
• ISBN10: 0521143845
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

This 1984 book deals with those social transformations which occurred in Chinese society since the revolution in 1949. During the 1950s the Chinese Communist Party introduced a rigid system of class labels (e.g. landlord, rich peasant, middle peasant, landless labourer) based on pre-revolutionary notions of exploitation and property ownership. The class label system was a source of much social discontent during the 1960s and mid-1970s; the official use of labels ceased by the time of this book's publication, but the effects of the system are still felt by millions of Chinese. The book will be of interest to a wide range of readers, not just those who specialise in Chinese social history. Contributors include two anthropologists, one historian, three political scientists, and three sociologists.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: class and class formation in Chinese society

Chinese views of social classification

Classes, old and new, in Mao Zedong's thought, 1949-1976

The decline of virtuocracy in China

Destratification in China

The class system in rural China: a case study

Bourgeois radicalism in the 'New Class' of Shanghai, 1949-1969

Marriage choice and status groups in contemporary

Sexual inequality under socialism: the Chinese case in perspective

Notes

Contributors

Index

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