[...]... Poverty and Wealth in Postsocialist China 5 the underlying processes that stratify Chinese society, we emphasize institutional context and historical legacies For example, to understand the situation of industrial workers in a postsocialist China, we must consider China s long history of sustained investment in industry From the very first years after the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949,... Peking University xueguang zhou, Professor, Department of Sociology, Stanford University creating wealth and poverty in postsocialist china pa rt i p ov e rt y, w e a lt h , a n d s t r at i f ic at ion : t h e i n t e rc on n e c t ions chapter one Poverty and Wealth in Postsocialist China: An Overview Deborah Davis and Wang Feng China today is an economic giant deeply embedded in global trade and. .. economic gains initially left almost no poor household worse off than before and even reduced income inequality among households (Fei, Ranis, and Kuo 1979) In high-growth, postsocialist China, however, greater affluence has dramatically reduced the incidence of subsistence poverty but increased income inequality, resulting in a pattern of rising inequality similar to that found in Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia.8... discussion of how inclusion of cash value of benefits increases the gap Rising inequality in China cannot be divorced from the international political economy within which China has engineered its impressive economic growth China s economic growth both fueled and has been fueled by the most recent expansion of global capitalism Increasingly engaged in global manufacturing and trade, both state and nonstate... Russia and Eastern Europe in initial outcomes or pace of change Instead of suffering a devastating economic downturn in its initial retreat from 3 4 Deborah Davis and Wang Feng socialist autarky, China experienced two decades of double-digit growth and a dramatic drop in poverty In contrast to the “shock therapy” that characterized postsocialist transformations in Europe and Central Asia, China followed... prices in recent years will further distinguish the Chinese population between a Poverty and Wealth in Postsocialist China 13 wealthy strata whose wealth derives from ownership of capital or property and a majority who rely on their labor Urban home ownership is only one example of how ties to organizations and relationships originating in the socialist era shaped subsequent inequalities of wealth in. .. the worldwide mapping of wealth, poverty, and inequality At the same time, the social and political processes shaping and defining the dynamic redistribution provide fertile ground for us to rethink the theoretical approaches to the study of poverty and wealth The earlier wave of research in postsocialist societies focused overwhelmingly on determinants of income inequalities and revolved around the... types of individual characteristics were rewarded more during the transition to markets than under the socialist redistributive regime (Bian and Logan 1996; Gerber and Hout 1998; Nee 1989, 1991, 1996; Nee and Cao 1999; Rona-Tas 1994; Wu 2002; Zhou 2000a) In contrast, in explaining the emerging trends of poverty and wealth in China, authors in this volume go beyond questions about income inequality and debates... transition They focus instead on multiple outcomes, multiple actors, and the complex processes embedded in the larger institutional context Inequality is generated as individuals arrive at a particular social position within a preexisting structure and then evolve as they Poverty and Wealth in Postsocialist China 19 progress across the life course within changing social and economic institutions Such... also continue to accept a world in which they first turn to the party-state for redress Contemporary patterns of poverty and wealth have their roots in China s socialist period But viewed in longer historical perspective, the rapid economic expansion since 1978 represents only one brief interlude in China s long history Furthermore, as we are reminded by R Bin Wong’s sweeping review of China s experiences . University creating wealth and poverty in postsocialist china part i poverty, wealth, and stratification: the interconnections 3 chapter one Poverty and Wealth. in Transitional China 85 Liu Xin chapter seven Rethinking Corporatist Bases of Stratification in Rural China 97 Xueguang Zhou chapter eight Creating Wealth: