From workers to capitalists in less than two generations: A study of Chinese urban top group transformation between 1988 and 2013

Li, Yang; Novokmet, Filip; Milanović, Branko

doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12850

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Nonetheless, economic development has also occurred alongside escalating inequality within urban areas. The urban elite not only are wealthier than their urban non-elite counterparts but are increasingly distinguishable by their educational attainment and occupations (e.g., Yang et al, 2021). Hence, it was crucial to separate elite-urban and urban non-elite students to capture the experiences of the most socioeconomically advantaged students.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global and local possible selves: Differentiated strategies for positional competition among Chinese university students

Mulvey

Wright

2022

British Educational Res J

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The term neijuan (in English 'involution') has captured feelings of perpetual competition and anxiety among university students in China preparing for their post-graduation careers. In this article, we develop a neo-Weberian reading of neijuan to construct a framework using positional conflict theory and the concept of 'possible selves'. We investigated how final-year university students from three social class factions-rural, urban non-elite and urban eliteenvisage, plan and strategise for their future careers.We draw on in-depth interviews (n = 100) and a postgraduation survey (n = 97) with students at two public universities, one elite and one lower-tier, in a metropolitan city in Guangdong province. The findings underscore marked differences in the nature and clarity of students' envisaged future selves along the lines of social advantage and disadvantage. We demonstrate how social class is deeply connected to the scale of the competition-national or global-that students perceive themselves to be implicated in. In doing so, we draw attention to social class differences in expressions of and capacities to realise what we term 'globally orientated possible selves', which involved escaping both the sense of entrapment and the prospect of failure evinced by neijuan.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global and local possible selves: Differentiated strategies for positional competition among Chinese university students

Mulvey

Wright

2022

British Educational Res J

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“…In 2019, the average annual fee was ¥253,723 (US$38,739) in Shanghai (the most expensive) and ¥159,886 (US$24,411) in Guangdong Province (the fourth) (NewSchool Insight, 2019). Thus, international schooling forms an exclusive commodity for affluent urban families, especially the “new rich” in China, who accumulated wealth during the reforms and opening-up as entrepreneurs and high-level professionals (Yang et al , 2021). Many are keen to convert wealth into international education opportunities for their children to seek future economic, social and cultural prestige (Xiang and Shen, 2009).…”

Section: International Schooling In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding flexible citizenship: Chinese international school students and global mobilities for higher education

Wright¹

2022

STICS

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Purpose This study aims to interrogate and expand on the flexible citizenship framework by illuminating students' emergent identities and imagined future mobilities in China's expanding international school sector. Design/methodology/approach In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with international school students and their parents in Shenzhen, covering their motivations for overseas higher education, experience with international schooling, self-perceived identities and imagined futures. Findings The participants aspired to overseas higher education for both symbolic capital attainment and embodied cultural cultivation to thrive in a globalised world. They expressed confidence that international schooling experiences prepared students for mobility to Western higher education and cultivated globally-oriented identities while not undermining their Chinese roots. They imagined their futures in terms of considerable flexibility, with a rising China viewed as an attractive and feasible option for career development. Research limitations/implications This research provides an enriched understanding of a new generation of globally mobile Chinese students. The participants held distinctively different outlooks, aspirations and attitudes than depicted in the flexible citizenship framework, which emphasised a one-dimensional and instrumentalist portrayal of Chinese international students. This study discusses cross-generational changes in the desire for overseas education and a global-national outlook among young people in the context of significant social transformations in urban China. Originality/value The originality of this study is in expanding the flexible citizenship framework with reference to the emergent identities and pathways of students in the international schooling sector in China.

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“…Starting from the 1990s, China has gone through a remarkable transformation, progressing from a poor and egalitarian society to an upper-middle-income country with levels of economic inequality comparable to those of the United StatesPiketty et al [2019]. Several studies find that political status and connection might play a key role in explaining existing inequalities, in both developed and developing countries [Johnson and Mitton, 2003, Khwaja and Mian, 2005, Faccio, 2006, Yang et al, 2021. In the context of China, there is growing interest among economists and other social scientists in measuring the economic returns of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) membership [Szelényi, 1987, Nee, 1989, 1991, 1996, Rona-Tas, 1994, Morduch and Sicular, 2000, Dickson and Rublee, 2000, Li et al, 2007, Appleton et al, 2009, McLaughlin, 2017, Gu and Zheng, 2018, Guo and Sun, 2019, Nikolov et al, 2020.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The period under investigation is particularly interesting because China undertook a process of deep economic transformation. Private wealth experienced rapid and diffused growth, fostered by structural reforms [Novokmet et al, 2018, Piketty et al, 2019, Yang et al, 2021, Song et al, 2011.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Communist Party Membership on Wealth Distribution and Accumulation in Urban China

Targa¹,

Yang²

2023

Preprint

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This paper provides the first in-depth investigation into the evolution of the wealth gap between CCP and non-CCP households in urban China from 1995 to 2017. We apply unconditional quantile regression (UQR) to analyze the variations in the premiums of party membership across the wealth distribution. Our results show that although the average wealth gap between CCP and non-CCP households remained substantial and consistent throughout the period, there have been significant shifts in the returns structure of party membership over time. Prior to the housing reform in the 1990s, the highest wealth premiums of CCP households were primarily concentrated in the middle of the distribution, but now they are concentrated at the bottom of the distribution. This is mainly attributed to the fact that CCP households at the lower end of the net wealth distribution are more inclined to possess real estate assets, which tend to have higher value compared to those owned by non-CCP households. These effects fade out in the top half of the net wealth distribution, where the differences between CCP and non-CCP households become less apparent. Furthermore, by utilizing a balanced household panel from 2013 to 2017, we were able to track wealth accumulation at the household level. Our findings indicate that CCP households accumulate wealth faster than non-CCP households due to larger capital gains, and the differences between the two groups increase along the net wealth distribution. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper)

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From workers to capitalists in less than two generations: A study of Chinese urban top group transformation between 1988 and 2013

Cited by 12 publications

References 54 publications

Global and local possible selves: Differentiated strategies for positional competition among Chinese university students

Global and local possible selves: Differentiated strategies for positional competition among Chinese university students

Expanding flexible citizenship: Chinese international school students and global mobilities for higher education

The Impact of Communist Party Membership on Wealth Distribution and Accumulation in Urban China

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