INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY IN MODERN CHINA

In this article, we study patterns of intergenerational mobility in modern China. We use data from the Social Structure in Modern China Survey, which was conducted in 1988 among urban and rural populations of two municipalities and four provinces in mainland China. Both absolute mobility and relative mobility rates are examined with regard to theoretical propositions relevant to industrialism and socialism. Of emerging patterns, we find no evidence in support of increasing upward mobility of the working population. Instead, total mobility and upward mobility from farm origins into manual destinations, and from farm and manual origins into non-manual destinations reflect changing state policies in economic development, control over population movement and sponsorship of farm and working class origins. Trends of social fluidity show no monotonically increasing openness for three ten year cohorts of men and women. Compared with men, class allocation is more strongly related to class origin for women.