China's Ethnicity and Social Stratification

Question 1

Define Major ethnic groups in China

Answer 1

Zhuang, Miao, Hui, Manchu, and Ugyghur.

Question 2

Explain the Major ethinic groups in China

Answer 2

Zhuang, religion of nature, worship/ ancestor worship, adopted Daoism, Buddism.

Question 3

Define Marx’s notion of “class” (jieji)

Answer 3

based on ownership of the means of production, exploitation of cheap labor by the owners, and their capture of “surplus value” form workers ( economic def. of class)

Question 4

Maoist era

Answer 4

Marxist vs. Maoist conceptions of “class”.
Class origin (economic /cultural) vs. class status( political)

Class in the Maoist era was a caste-like system based on one’s birth.

Question 5

Define (hukou)

Answer 5

continues ancient chinese tradition of Household registration: to register a person and family to place of birth.
Rural hukou holders lack access to high quality education, healthcare and job opportunities
Designed to keep people in rural areas and working in agriculture to support urban areas and industrialization
- occupational and political categories were inherited through the father ; they determined one’s future life chances and opportunities

Question 6

Define China’s social class and stratification

Answer 6

both are ideological since they are made up of ideas, beliefs and values about the conditions of inequality and characterizing relations in an ideal society. The government has used it to classify populations in order to make social order legible and more easily governed.

Question 7

Define the Five red categories during the Mao period.

Answer 7

• poor and lower middle peasants
• workers
• revolutionary soldiers, cadres , and martyrs

Question 8

Define the Black categories during the Mao period

Answer 8

landlords, rich farmers, counter revolutionaries bad elements and right wingers

Question 9

What is the Maoist class conception?

Answer 9

Maoist class status system:
- Permanence: class labels were not revised after the 1950’s Land reform confiscation of private property
Inherited by the father and continues for generations, good labels received many social opportunities
- class status was not solely based on economic analysis but also moral, legal and political criteria which is the example of red and black categories
Economic, cultural, and polticial otigins of the system of class

Question 10

Explain the Jacka reading in terms of social stratification of China

Answer 10

Class desgination and rural-urban divide as main sources of inequality
however millions of people ended up in poverty. the disadvantaged groups were laid-off workers and landless villagers

Question 11

Define terminology of classes

Answer 11

Class: based on relations of prodcution
Class-status: based on family history and ideology
Class startum: based on consumption and cultural capital