ERIC Number: EJ1036298
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Dec
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0018-1560
EISSN: N/A
The Quest for Higher Education by the Chinese Middle Class: Retrenching Social Mobility?
Tsang, Eileen Yuk-ha
Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education and Educational Planning, v66 n6 p653-668 Dec 2013
This article examines how and why the Chinese second-generation middle class, who are unable to obtain admission in China's premier universities, turn their back on other public universities and instead attend private universities in their country. It finds that their parents capitalize on their privileged "guanxi" (connections) to send their children to private universities and then study abroad to secure a generational reproduction of their class status and mobility. The Chinese new middle class families look upon joint-partnership private universities as the stepping stone for overseas study. In addition, this article examines how extant Western class theories, including Weberian, Neo-Weberian, and Bourdieuian theories, cannot provide an adequate account of class formation and the generational stratification in present-day China. To explain this reproduction of class in contemporary China, this paper explores how and why the Maoist social institutions of "danwei" (work unit) and "hukou" (household registration) still matter in post-reform China in determining middle class's life chance. Seen in this light, the progenies of cadres and skilled professionals are the main beneficiaries of economic reform.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Higher Education, Middle Class, Social Mobility, Private Colleges, Study Abroad, Social Stratification, Social Theories, Social Capital
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A