ChinaFile Recommends
12.09.16China Has Gained Hugely from Globalization, So Why Are Its Workers So Unhappy?
Economist
Now, more than ever, working-class Chinese fret about rising inequality, the impact of mass migration from the countryside into cities and job losses
ChinaFile Recommends
11.29.16Stuck at the Bottom in China
New York Times
If the Chinese government is serious about fostering a stable and harmonious society, it must address limits on social mobility before it’s too late
ChinaFile Recommends
11.29.16Author’s Vision of a Future Beijing Looks to China’s Present
New York Times
Meet Hao Jingfang, author of "Folding Beijing,” the science-fiction novelette that beat out Stephen King to win a Hugo Award.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.20.16A New Literary Genre Critiques the Scariest Part of Life in China: Reality
Quartz
Enter chaohuan, the "ultra-unreal"
Caixin Media
08.05.14
Top One Percent Has One-Third of China’s Wealth
A recent academic report on wealth inequality in China shows that the top one percent of households holds one-third of total assets, while the bottom fourth holds only one percent.The report, published by a research institute in Peking University,...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.30.14China’s Culture of Compliance Is Crippling the Country
Time
This year, China will very likely overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy. It has certainly become wealthy. But it has also become less free.
Media
04.28.14
A Guide to Social Class in Modern China
Class is a sensitive word in China. Marxist-Leninist rhetoric like “class enemies,” “class conflict,” and “class struggle” are rarely seen in the country’s media these days, but since China began its market reforms in 1979, stratification has...
Caixin Media
09.23.13
Measuring the Wealth Gap
Recent findings by China Society of Economic Reform (CSER) have offered a rare glimpse into growing income inequality in the country.The study shows that in 2011 unidentified “gray income,” or the difference between CSER-surveyed income and that of...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.06.13Urbanisation: Some Are More Equal Than Others
Economist
Rural migrants living in the handshake buildings are still second-class citizens, most of whom have no access to urban health care or to the city’s high schools. Their homes could be demolished at any time.
Reports
06.01.13
Inequality in China
World Bank
This paper provides an overview of research on income inequality in China over the period of economic reform. It presents the results of two main sources of evidence on income inequality and, assisted by various decompositions, explains the reasons...
Conversation
02.08.13
Rich, Poor and Chinese—Does Anyone Trust Beijing to Bust the Corrupt?
Andrew Nathan:The new Chinese leadership under Xi Jinping seems to be making some bold opening moves with its attacks on corruption and the announcement on February 5 of plans to reduce the polarization of incomes. Does this mean Xi is...