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This dissertation is an ethnographic study on how Chinese upper-middle-class parents raise children as China rises in the world. In my 12-month fieldwork in Shanghai, I interviewed and surveyed 80 parents with children at all levels of schooling (K-12) and followed 20 households. Additionally, I interviewed schoolteachers and education service providers, attended school information sessions, and conducted seven weeks of observation at a boutique learning center. My findings show that Chinese upper-middle-class parents aspire to raise children who can move up in Chinese society and outward to compete in the developed world. My study engages with and challenges Bourdieu's theory of social reproduction by demonstrating that social reproduction in unsettled times is not a reenactment of past strategies as it is in settled times. Time matters in social reproduction. I take seriously that parents' past experiences, future plans, and ongoing concerns shape their childrearing practices, and show how being able to adapt to social change is a class advantage. In Chapter 1, I show how parents' relations to China's socialist past inform their intensive involvement. In Chapter 2, I show how parents' relations to China's global future shape their school choice. And in Chapter 3, I show how parents' relations to China's moral present influence their family socialization. Chinese upper-middle-class parents reconstruct the past to legitimate their class practices; they imagine multiple possible futures to reduce risks of failure; and they talk "quality" (suzhi) to moralize the growing social inequalities in their schools and society. My study illuminates "moments of crisis" in which people challenge their own habitual, taken-for-granted practices, and develop new and strategic ways of being in a globalizing world; and the resources that they need for self-transformation. In doing so, I contribute to theories of social reproduction, globalization, and relational sociology.
Decades ago, there was no distinct middle class in the People's Republic of China. Any meaningful discussion of China's economy, politics, or society must take into account the rapid emergence and explosive growth of the Chinese middle class. This book details the origins and characteristics of this dramatic change.
A study of how China’s changing economy may leave its rural communities in the dust and launch a political and economic disaster. As the glittering skyline in Shanghai seemingly attests, China has quickly transformed itself from a place of stark poverty into a modern, urban, technologically savvy economic powerhouse. But as Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell show in Invisible China, the truth is much more complicated and might be a serious cause for concern. China’s growth has relied heavily on unskilled labor. Most of the workers who have fueled the country’s rise come from rural villages and have never been to high school. While this national growth strategy has been effective for three decades, the unskilled wage rate is finally rising, inducing companies inside China to automate at an unprecedented rate and triggering an exodus of companies seeking cheaper labor in other countries. Ten years ago, almost every product for sale in an American Walmart was made in China. Today, that is no longer the case. With the changing demand for labor, China seems to have no good back-up plan. For all of its investment in physical infrastructure, for decades China failed to invest enough in its people. Recent progress may come too late. Drawing on extensive surveys on the ground in China, Rozelle and Hell reveal that while China may be the second-largest economy in the world, its labor force has one of the lowest levels of education of any comparable country. Over half of China’s population—as well as a vast majority of its children—are from rural areas. Their low levels of basic education may leave many unable to find work in the formal workplace as China’s economy changes and manufacturing jobs move elsewhere. In Invisible China, Rozelle and Hell speak not only to an urgent humanitarian concern but also a potential economic crisis that could upend economies and foreign relations around the globe. If too many are left structurally unemployable, the implications both inside and outside of China could be serious. Understanding the situation in China today is essential if we are to avoid a potential crisis of international proportions. This book is an urgent and timely call to action that should be read by economists, policymakers, the business community, and general readers alike. Praise for Invisible China “Stunningly researched.” —TheEconomist, Best Books of the Year (UK) “Invisible China sounds a wake-up call.” —The Strategist “Not to be missed.” —Times Literary Supplement (UK) “[Invisible China] provides an extensive coverage of problems for China in the sphere of human capital development . . . the book is rich in content and is not constrained only to China, but provides important parallels with past and present developments in other countries.” —Journal of Chinese Political Science
Raising a child is challenging for many parents, especially for a new, immigrant family. For those parents, they not only have to face the challenges of integrating themselves into a new environment, but they also need to handle the conflicts coming from two cultural backgrounds. Like many Chinese Americans, the authors inherited the traditional Chinese culture. Yet they also opened their minds and embraced their new culture. Through the collisions of these two cultures, they developed a unique parenting strategy: a combination of the best of both worlds to educate their children. This approach offered them a cutting edge in developing their children to be among the most competitive. As they raised their children, they • held parties to build their children’s social groups; • used teamwork to create a harmonious family, strengthening the family bonds; • helped their children excel in academic competitions; • taught their children how to be rigorous and strive for perfection; • inspired their children to explore innovative strategies to overcome obstacles; • developed their children’s creativity, leadership, and initiative; • encouraged their children to be involved in the community; and • gave their children freedom to develop their individual personalities and discover their full potentials. The authors believe that their story will be beneficial to other parents and also provide a new perspective of Chinese American families for mainstream Americans.
This book is a collection of empirical studies on China’s middle class from top-ranking Chinese sociologists, discussing this newly identified social stratum with regard to the basic concept and scope of the group, its functions, formation, identity, consumption, behavior patterns and value system. As the first study of its kind, the analysis of most chapters is based on a rich body of empirical data gathered from rigorous large-scale surveys designed specifically for the Chinese middle class across megacities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The book traces the complex and dynamic formation process of China’s middle class from different perspectives while dealing with issues of social concern such as “rigid social stratification”. The findings shed light on the underlying logic of structural change in Chinese society over several recent decades, with significant policy implications. The book will attract sociologists, students and policymakers interested in social structure, social transformation and middle-income groups in China.
Public discourse on Asian parenting tends to fixate on ethnic culture as a static value set, disguising the fluidity and diversity of Chinese parenting. Such stereotypes also fail to account for the challenges of raising children in a rapidly modernizing world, full of globalizing values. In Raising Global Families, Pei-Chia Lan examines how ethnic Chinese parents in Taiwan and the United States negotiate cultural differences and class inequality to raise children in the contexts of globalization and immigration. She draws on a uniquely comparative, multisited research model with four groups of parents: middle-class and working-class parents in Taiwan, and middle-class and working-class Chinese immigrants in the Boston area. Despite sharing a similar ethnic cultural background, these parents develop class-specific, context-sensitive strategies for arranging their children's education, care, and discipline, and for coping with uncertainties provoked by their changing surroundings. Lan's cross-Pacific comparison demonstrates that class inequality permeates the fabric of family life, even as it takes shape in different ways across national contexts.
New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice; Real Simple Best of the Month; Library Journal Editors’ Pick In the spirit of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Bringing up Bébé, and The Smartest Kids in the World, a hard-hitting exploration of China’s widely acclaimed yet insular education system that raises important questions for the future of American parenting and education When students in Shanghai rose to the top of international rankings in 2009, Americans feared that they were being "out-educated" by the rising super power. An American journalist of Chinese descent raising a young family in Shanghai, Lenora Chu noticed how well-behaved Chinese children were compared to her boisterous toddler. How did the Chinese create their academic super-achievers? Would their little boy benefit from Chinese school? Chu and her husband decided to enroll three-year-old Rainer in China’s state-run public school system. The results were positive—her son quickly settled down, became fluent in Mandarin, and enjoyed his friends—but she also began to notice troubling new behaviors. Wondering what was happening behind closed classroom doors, she embarked on an exploratory journey, interviewing Chinese parents, teachers, and education professors, and following students at all stages of their education. What she discovered is a military-like education system driven by high-stakes testing, with teachers posting rankings in public, using bribes to reward students who comply, and shaming to isolate those who do not. At the same time, she uncovered a years-long desire by government to alleviate its students’ crushing academic burden and make education friendlier for all. The more she learns, the more she wonders: Are Chinese children—and her son—paying too high a price for their obedience and the promise of future academic prowess? Is there a way to appropriate the excellence of the system but dispense with the bad? What, if anything, could Westerners learn from China’s education journey? Chu’s eye-opening investigation challenges our assumptions and asks us to consider the true value and purpose of education.
(2nd Edition: July 6, 2012) In The Chinese Dream, a groundbreaking book about the rising middle class in China, Forbes columnist and China expert Helen Wang challenges us to recognize that some of our fears about China are grossly misplaced. As a result of China's new capitalist paradigm, a burgeoning middle class-calculated to reach 800 million within the next fifteen years-is jumping aboard the consumerism train and riding it for all it's worth-a reality that may provide the answer to America's economic woes. And with China's increasing urbanization and top-down governmental approach, it now faces increasing energy, environmental, and health problems-problems that the U.S. can help solve. Through timely interviews, personal stories, and a historical perspective, China-born Wang takes us into the world of the Chinese entrepreneurial middle class to show how a growing global mindset and the realization of unity in diversity may ultimately provide the way to creating a saner, safer world for all.
The widening of income and wealth inequality has become one of the most important obstacles on the road to China’s common prosperity. In the context of inequality reduction and anti-poverty strategy in China, this book investigates the complex relationship between education and intergenerational mobility in terms of occupation and income. Based on large-scale social survey data, cutting-edge econometric models and statistical methods, the book examines the role of education in breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty and promoting intergenerational mobility. It analyzes the characteristics of birth cohorts in intergenerational mobility, the long-term trends of educational, occupational, and income mobility among rural and urban residents across generations, and also the different regional patterns of intergenerational mobility against the background of social changes in China. Based on empirical findings, the author advances suggestions on an education policy conducive to poverty alleviation. The book will appeal to scholars and students studying the sociology of education, the economics of education and Chinese education, as well as policy makers interested in the topics of education policy systems and poverty alleviation, as well as education equity and social mobility.
Asians and Asian-Americans make up 4% of the U.S. population...and 20% of the Ivy League. Now find out how they do it. The numbers speak for themselves: 18% of Harvard's population; 25% of Columbia's; 42% of Berkeley's; 24% of Stanford's; 25% of Cornell's... What are Asian parents doing to start their kids on the road to academic excellence at an early age? What can all parents do to help their children ace tests, strive to achieve, and reach educational goals? In this book, two sisters-a doctor and a lawyer whose parents came from South Korea to the U.S. with two hundred dollars in their pockets-reveal the practices that lead Asian-Americans to academic, professional, and personal success.