Chinese Popular Culture - Essay Example

Wealth distribution discrepancies and its effects on Chinese People and popular Culture Introduction In the People’s Republic China, the discrepancy of wealth distribution is a living fact. It is among the countries with the highest discrepancies in social stratification and the distribution of wealth amongst its people. In this discussion, it is paramount to outline and analyze the effect of these discrepancies on the general welfare of the Chinese population. The focus is on education, transportation, housing, employment, human rights, and the patterns of consumption. Wealth distribution and its effect on access to housing in the People’s Republic of china Wealth distribution refers to the proportional ownership of the net value of the stock of owned assets, including land, housing, privately owned productive equipment, consumer durables, bank deposits and other financial instruments. The People’s Republic of China has experienced a surge in the expansion of its middle class. Until the late 1990s, the average disposable income in the entire nation remained low due to the hang-over form the socialist policies that dominated the economy in the greater part of the 18th and the 19th Centuries. Wealth distribution is more unequal than the income distribution in China. In the housing segment, the quick reforms on property rights and housing in the financial markets that took place in the 1980s allowed the public to own property and accumulate wealth. The wealthy had the opportunity to invest in the property markets and the rural households acquired partial property rights that allowed them to accumulate wealth in the form of consumer durables. These reforms introduced discrepancies in the distribution of wealth. Urban household had a greater opportunity to accumulate in the form of financial assets. Rural household, on the other hand, have had limited access to financial instruments and hence owning house of lower value than their urban counterparts have. Even within the urban areas, the benefits of reform from property rights has not been shared equally. The distribution of housing wealth contributes about two thirds of the overall housing inequality in China (Luigi Tomba, 4). The rural poor cannot afford the prices of house in an urban setting. The Urban poor as well cannot access modern housing units because due to the rent effects resulting from the methods of house acquisition. The middle class can afford apartments in urban centers. The apartments are highly subsidized with prices that bear little relationship with market values. For instance, in northern Beijing, Chaoyang district, Hopetown is one best example of a quarter developed because of the property rights reforms. The residential area is home to most of the middle class members of the public in Beijing. This group of middle class dwellers represents a social identity of persons who have the ability to afford home ownership. Wealth distribution and education In the PRC, the wealthy members of the society are not well educated. This leads to the need to acquire educational credentials to enhance their social status. Since 1999, higher education has been expanded, especially in expensive executive programmes. The wealthy are having access to higher education. The middle class has higher regard for education because it a symbol of high social status are a post-communist class that has managed to accumulate wealth through handwork and quality education credentials that made them access to well paying jobs. At the Hopetown estate, the majority of the residents are the middle class of educational affluence with well paying jobs-the salaried population. The middle class is also composed of rich entrepreneurs that were co-opted by the Communist Party (CCP) with constitutional amendments to embrace capitalists. The poor have limited access to education. The decentralization the fiscal system in China has increased the dependence of the poor in the rural regions on their own resource base to access education. The local governments have, therefore, imposed surtaxes and other forms of user fees to access public services such as education. This makes education expensive leading to school dropouts because some rural residents keep their children out of school. Wealth distribution and transportation in china There is a disparity in the distribution of transportation equipment is in China. This is due to the big gap between rural dwellers and urban residents in the terms of wealth distribution. Rural residents do not possess machinery non-firm transportation equipments. This suggests a downward trend in the distribution of modern capital inputs. Urban households in the middle class have invested in nonfarm transport machinery such as cars and trucks. Trucks in this sense are for entrepreneurial households that transport merchandise from deposits and other terminus. Richer households invest more in the modern production inputs. The rural residents invest more in livestock than urban residents do. Unemployment in relation to Wealth distribution china Unequal distribution of wealth is responsible for poverty in China. In urban areas reforms associated with reforms in the wage system, the dismantling of subsidies and welfare services, and the adjustments in the labor markets is responsible for the rising unemployment. The distribution of urban wages has become more unequal as undifferentiated wage structure has been replaced with a structure with wage differentials (Meng, 114). This caused unemployment among the people as the due to a decline in the income obtainable from assets. Another cause of unemployment in is the high rural to urban migration. Wealth distribution disparities between the rural and urban residents have caused people to move from rural settings to urban settings. The slow growth of off-farm employment in the rural areas and the increasing decline of job opportunities in the agricultural sector compel people to seek alternative opportunities in the urban cities. The industrial and technologically advanced urban centers are creating more jobs. Wealth distribution and Human rights in China Before the existing wave of reform, the People’s Republic of China was a nation of suppressed people. However, with the growth of a rising middle class that is educated, has resulted in civil rights movements that demand a modern approach to issues of human rights. The people at the low level of the social strata are the victims of human rights violations by Chinese authorities. Currently, the respect for human rights and strong legal systems are not stable ideas in China but growing concepts. With the expanded economy, the problems of unemployment, appalling factory work conditions, and corruption are the reasons for increased social unrest (Massingdale, 77). The poor are the victims of such because they are suppressed from voicing their concerns. The absence of independent trade unions, a free press, and other autonomous channels of voicing dissatisfaction have led to confrontations between the urban poor and the Chinese authorities. Other aspects of human rights violations that result from inequalities in income distribution are the high legal fees of hiring an attorney. The rich and the middle class can afford the services of personal lawyers. This makes them to gain more access to justice unlike the poor who depend on the services of state attorneys who are prone to corrupt deals with the prosecution. However, the signing of two international covenants on human rights is a positive sign. It’s worth noting that the idea of human rights is not common in China with the emerging openness to the international community, there is the likelihood to more human rights movements, which can free the poor form human rights abuses from authorities. This comes with a more privatized media fraternity deviating from the traditional government controlled media. People who have limited access to human rights needs such as, liberty, education, employment, health etc are only citizens in writing but not in reality. It is the responsibility of the state to provide such fundamental needs. When the state abuses them, and denies its people the access to such needs, they cease being citizens. The idea of citizenry is borne form the enjoyment such privileges and not mere residence in the country. If the society is so stratified in terms of wealth distribution, only a section of its people can access basic aspects of fundamental rights. The people of that society are reduced to amorphous citizens. Consumption patterns in the PRC are not limited to the level of income alone. Other factor such has the race, ethnic considerations, gender come into play. Racial discrimination is alive in China. The white a person appears the more they receive preferential treatment to access certain social facilities. For instance, Africans in China, are discriminated against may not be allowed to reside a particular areas even if they can afford to do so. Segregation can also take a more localized version like the class. Some communities consider themselves to be traditional in a higher class than others. Although this may not be prevalent, the remains of the revolutionist class system in the rural areas still discriminate people form peasant backgrounds. However, people from former peasant localities that managed to accumulate wealth through entrepreneurship and education have been co-opted into the classy consumption class due to the increased social reforms since the late 19th and 20th centuries. Class discrimination in China is also on the consumption of certain products. Dogs are simple of affluence in the urban areas. There are even magazines that advertize the best breeds to keep. This dynamic has taken shape due to the rising size of the Chinese middle class that resides in the urban centers and cities. Popular culture is the overall and accumulated depiction of a culture that is reflected through such things as, fashion, literature, art, film, television music, and other genres that reflect the appreciated values of the mainstream population (Wu, 45). Mainly the non-elite segment of the population consumes popular culture. In China, popular culture has been commercialized in production. In the entertainment industry, the vast population has a sense of good taste for the content with popular culture. The film industry takes advantage of the affluence of popular culture to display the history of the Chinese people and their historical backgrounds and beliefs (Yomi, 3). An example is movies such as the big shots’ funeral are a product of popular culture. The film industry is a huge market for popular culture, and it benefits from huge foreign investments from Hollywood and other film producers. On the consumption patterns, the majority of Chinese people consume products from the creative productions and artwork form popular culture. This has identified China as an economy built on the advancement of culture for both cultural and economic posterity. Works cited Luigi Tomba, Creating an Urban middle class: Social engineering in Beijing. 2002, Print Massingdale, Lee R. Human Rights in China. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2009. Internet resource. Meng, Xin. Wealth Accumulation and Distribution in Urban China. Bonn: Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit, 2004. Print. Wu, Dingbo. Handbook of Chinese Popular Culture. Westport, Conn. [u.a.: Greenwood Press, 1994. Print. Yomi Braester. Chinese Cinema in the age of advertisement. 2002, press Read More