Chinas Middle Class and Statement of Intent - Essay Example

China’s Middle ment of Intent The issue about the growth of middle in China is a personal choice because of its potentially huge implication for its domestic future, and its role in the global arena. However, the growing literature thus far that discusses this trend and its repercussions has been mostly filled with inaccurate explanations and too much assumption. In spite of its economic achievement, the political and social development of China is still unsure (Li 22). China, alongside its remarkable economic performance in the past decades, changed from a classless society into a class-based society, with its middle class continuously growing. Because of China’s broad economic role and the role of the state in wealth accumulation, major political outcomes may arise from this merging of economic inequality and progress. The growth of a middle class and the promotion of its beliefs and consumption behavior, may build the way towards a successful China. Obviously, many Chinese people have gained enough personal wealth to change them into voluntary consumers that are the main characteristics of a middle class. It is perhaps important that chances to belong to the middle class continue to grow in order to allow those belonging to the lower class to think they can become part of the middle class sooner or later (Croll 15). Mostly, China’s middle class is still largely new. The middle class only grew recently and is composed of people who got there by means of private enterprise, others got there by getting employed in foreign-owned companies and through educational attainment (Cui & Song 38). It seems that many of the aspects of the middle class in other places like a certain social philosophy and broad civil societies are still not key aspects of the middle class in China. In fact, how the growing China’s middle class forms itself with regard to these particular aspects will probably be quite crucial for the development of the entire system. The series of changes since the Maoist period have allowed the growth of the middle class in China, but this currently vital social class may become a threat if the system does not keep on progressing (Ford 1). There is now broad discontent that fast increase in housing prices is building barriers to the middle class and is preventing people from returning to it when health costs or several other factors negatively impact their personal wealth (Pow 77-80). The sources chosen for this essay are three scholarly references and two popular references. The three scholarly references are all books: Elisabeth Croll’s China’s New Consumer: Social Development and Domestic Demand, Choon-Piew Pow’s Gated Communities in China: Class, Privilege, and the Moral Politics of the Good Life, and Cheng Li’s China’s Emerging Middle Class: Beyond Economic Transformation. The two popular sources are a magazine and a newspaper: Peter Ford’s In China, Middle-Class Affluence, Not Political Influence and Allison Cui’s and Kheehong Song’s Understanding China’s Middle Class. These references are chosen for this essay because of their comprehensive discussion of the nature and reason for the growth of middle class in China. In particular, all these sources discuss the political and social implication of the growing middle class in China. All the authors try to explain the factors contributing to the formation of the middle class in China, and how the demands and perceptions of this new, growing social class influence the political and social system and domestic future of China. Listening In talking about the middle class in China, the most unclear difference is that between the middle class and the wealthy. But without some idea of the richest people of Chinese society, the idea of a middle class becomes somewhat unclear. The main thing one observes about the richest people in China is that their social and political influence have transformed considerably over the years. Elisabeth Croll’s China’s New Consumers: Social Development and Domestic Demand examined the consumer revolution in China over the years. This volume talks about an ongoing trend resulting in low demand and high supply, at the heart of which can be found an unreasonable expectations of the growing Chinese middle class. The anthropological knowledge of the author, alongside her knowledge of economic trends in China, gives the reader a broad understanding of the contemporary lifestyles and livelihood in China. But more particularly, the author provides a fresh look at the changing social classes in China who have gained from and been deprived by recent economic progress and political reform. The author places emphasis on the concerns, motives, and preferences of China’s growing middle class which are an important element of any present-day description of China’s political and social system. Explaining the social and political outcomes of fast economic progress and the new focus on inclusive social progress, the author will be of importance to readers who are curious about the political and social influence of Chinese middle class today. Similarly, Choon-Piew Pow’s Gated Communities in China: Class, Privilege and the Moral Politics of the Good Life, provides important information about the urban middle class in China. Using available ethnographic studies, the author explores the moral politics of China’s middle class, and how this growing social class makes use of purchasing power as a sort of social division by trying to create and protect what are believed to be their ‘legitimate’ private areas. The author’s book discusses gated communities as important places of a middle-class lifestyle where the identities and perceptions of the members of the middle class are shown, established, and lived. As accurately explained by Pow, middle-class consumption, especially in terms of housing, results in lifestyle division, a new status differentiation, and a new contemporary urban identity. Moreover, the author is able to clearly show that the location and lifestyle of the middle class will lead to class-based social and political system. On the other hand, Cheng Li’s China’s Emerging Middle Class: Beyond Economic Transformation talks about the fast growth of middle class in China and its major impacts on the country’s domestic and global future. Cheng Li and a group of other scholars study the social and political implications of the formation and development of China’s middle class over the recent years. They explored the formation and evolution of the middle class in China from different academic outlooks. They also examined numerous other issues related to the fast growth of China’s middle class. Peter Ford’s In China, Middle-Class Affluence, Not Political Influence discusses the political expectations and perceptions of the middle class, particularly those in the private enterprise. The author clearly shows how due to the dominance of the state or party in China and the limitation of the legal system, the Chinese middle class has unavoidably evolved in the shade of, and, in fact, within, the state or party. The author explains that instead of becoming opposed to the state, the interests of the members of the Chinese middle class have matched the interests of the state. The author proves his argument by showing how the union of the middle class and the state has happened over the years. However, the author argues that the middle class is more involved and ambitious of political influence than members of the lower classes. On the other hand, Allison Cui’s and Kheehong Song’s Understanding China’s Middle Class presents a more basic discussion of China’s middle class. As stated by the author, due to the fast progress of China, knowing the true nature and size of the middle class is unsurprisingly hard. The author persuasively shows that if examined only in relation to income, then perhaps one-fourth of the total population of China may be categorized as middle class. However, only considering incomes fails to capture the nature of the middle class as the concept is understood in China nowadays. Works Cited Croll, Elisabeth. China’s New Consumers: Social Development and Domestic Demands. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print. Cui, Allison & Kheehong Song. “Understanding China’s Middle Class.” The China Business Review 36.1 (2009): 38+ Ford, Peter. “In China, Middle-Class Affluence, Not Political Influence.” The Christian Science Monitor (2011): 1+ Li, Cheng. China’s Emerging Middle Class: Beyond Economic Transformation. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2010. Print. Pow, Choon-Piew. Gated Communities in China: Class, Privilege and the Moral Politics of the Good Life. Abingdon: Routledge, 2009. Print. Read More