One Country, Two Societies : : Rural-Urban Inequality in Contemporary China / / ed. by Martin K. Whyte.

• MitwirkendeR: Adams, Jennifer,; Chuliang, Luo,; Feng, Wang,; Gaetano, Arianne,; Guang, Lei,; Gustafsson, Björn A.,; Gustafsson, Björn,; Hannum, Emi Ly,; Hannum, Emily,; Hu, Xiaojiang,; Iang, Luo Chul,; Jieh-Min, Wu,; Kong, Fanmin,; Limei, Li,; Lu, Hanchao,; Murphy, Rachel,; Salazar, Miguel A.,; Salazar, Miguel,; Shi, Li,; Si-Ming, Li,; Si-ming, Li,; Sicular, Terry,; Wang, Fei-Ling,; Wang, Fei-ling,; Wang, Meiyan,; Whyte, Martin King,; Wu, Jieh-min,; Xiaojiang, Hu,; Ximing, Yue,; Yip, Winnie,
• HerausgeberIn: Whyte, Martin K.,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2010]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Series: Harvard Contemporary China Series ; 16
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (460 p.)

This timely and important collection of original essays analyzes China’s foremost social cleavage: the rural–urban gap. It is now clear that the Chinese communist revolution, though professing dedication to an egalitarian society, in practice created a rural order akin to serfdom, in which 80 percent of the population was effectively bound to the land. China is still struggling with that legacy. The reforms of 1978 changed basic aspects of economic and social life in China’s villages and cities and altered the nature of the rural-urban relationship. But some important institutions and practices have changed only marginally or not at all, and China is still sharply divided into rural and urban castes with different rights and opportunities in life, resulting in growing social tensions.The contributors, many of whom conducted extensive fieldwork, examine the historical background of rural–urban relations; the size and trend in the income gap between rural and urban residents in recent years; aspects of inequality apart from income (access to education and medical care, the digital divide, housing quality and location); experiences of discrimination, particularly among urban migrants; and conceptual and policy debates in China regarding the status and treatment of rural residents and urban migrants.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 The Paradoxes of Rural- Urban In e quality in Contemporary China -- I China’s Rural- Urban Gap: Setting the Context -- 2 Small- Town China: A Historical Perspective on Rural- Urban Relations -- 3 Rural Migrant Workers and China’s Differential Citizenship: A Comparative Institutional Analysis -- II China’s Rural- Urban Income Gap -- 4 How Large Is China’s Rural- Urban Income Gap? -- 5 Reestimating the Income Gap between Urban and Rural House holds in China -- III The Rural- Urban Gap in Access to Social Resources -- 6 Rural- Urban Disparities in Access to Primary and Secondary Education under Market Reforms -- 7 Disparities in Health Care and Health Status: The Rural- Urban Gap and Beyond -- 8 The Narrowing Digital Divide: A View from Rural China -- 9 The Impact of Variations in Urban Registration within Cities -- IV The Experience of Being a Migrant in Contemporary China -- 10 Boundaries of Inequality: Perceptions of Distributive Justice among Urbanities, Migrants, and Peasants -- 11 Rural Prejudice and Gender Discrimination in China’s Urban Job Market -- 12 Gender and Citizenship Inequality: The Story of Two Migrant Women -- 13 Ethnicity, Rurality, and Status: Hukou and the Institutional and Cultural Determinants of Social Status in Tibet -- V Evolving Policy toward Rural Migrants and the Rural- Urban Gap -- 14 Bringing the City Back In: The Chinese Debate on Rural Problems -- 15 Renovating the Great Floodgate: The Reform of China’s Hukou System -- Notes -- Contributors