| Description |
1 online resource (321 pages) |
| Contents |
Cover; Half Title; Title; Copyright; Introduction; Preface and Acknowledgments; Contents; Tables and Illustrations; 1. Scope and Methods; The Research Problem; The Setting; The Methods; The Study in Historical Perspective; 2. The Status Structure; The Status System; The Power Structure in the Status System; The Social Roles of the Gentry; 3. The Social Characteristics of the Gentry; The ""Style of Life; Literacy and Aspirations; The Extended Families of the Gentry; The Display of Prestige; The Social Structure of the Gentry; 4. Upward Mobility through Schooling and Medical Practice |
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The School as a Social LadderMedical Practice as a Social Ladder; 5. Upward Mobility through the Army, Government, and Commerce; The Army as a Social Ladder; The Government as a Social Ladder; Commerce as a Social Ladder; 6. Upward Mobility by the Avenue of Marriage; 7. The Types of Upward Mobility; The Types and Rates of Upward Mobility; The Socioeconomic Backgrounds of the Gentry; The Routes to Wealth Accumulation; 8. The Forms of Social Mobility; Occupational Mobility; Ecological Mobility as Related to Social Mobility; Upward and Downward Mobility; 9. Social Reform and Class Mobility |
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Social Revolution as a Social AvenueInsurrection as a Social Avenue; 10. Conclusions and General Remarks; The Gentry as a Status Group; Leisure as a Mode of Life; Social Mobility as a Characteristic of Chinese Society; Selected Bibliography; Index |
| Summary |
This authoritative volume - a large-scale empirical work comparable to Pitirim Sorokin's Social Mobility - is a penetrating and comprehensive study of social stratification and mobility in traditional Chinese society and a highly significant addition to the theoretical and factual foundations of contemporary social science. It offers an authentic portrayal not only of social mobility but of social life in China in general at the time of its original publication in the 1960s. It includes the life histories of the upper class - scholars, active and retired officials, merchants, and wealthy landlords - and an analysis of social statistics drawn from one Chinese county, which provides new interpretations of the processes of social mobility, the relationship of this class to society as a whole, and the motives of upwardly mobile individuals. Each life history comprises at least five generations and its resulting accounts touch upon the lives of 1,200 persons, and help place the development of the gentry in illuminating context within the population as a whole. Chow's book offers a welcome method of comparison of two societies that have both birth and mobile elites. As China entered the world system, its open class system changed from fluidity to disorganization regarding its character. As such it was transformed into an innovating society in which the earlier system could not, or did not, work. Social Mobility in Traditional Chinese Society is unique in its field for the successful correlation of conceptual framework with its detailed wealth of empirical findings. It will be welcomed by all students of social science, international relations, and Asian studies |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Middle class -- China -- Kùng-Yang (District)
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Social classes -- China -- Case studies
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Middle class.
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Middle class
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Social classes
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China
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| Genre/Form |
Case studies
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9781351490061 |
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1351490060 |
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9781351490054 |
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1351490052 |
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9781351490047 |
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1351490044 |
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