Ethnicity, Rurality and Status: Hukou and the Institutional and Cultural Determinants of Social Status in Tibet

Abstract

In contemporary China, the rural-urban divide is the most salient dimension of social stratification. The role of ethnicity, regarded as the most important dividing line in many countries, is less clear. China regards itself a multi-ethnic nation, and indeed seven per cent of the population formally belongs to an ethnic minority. Especially in the western regions of China, where the proportion of ethnic minorities is large, a better understanding of the relation between ethnicity and urban-rural status is needed to understand processes of social stratification and the sources of social tension and conflict. This article addresses two questions: what is the interrelation of urban-rural status and ethnicity in determining status hierarchies? How do the two dimensions operate simultaneously to form a system of social distinction? We will investigate the relation of ethnicity and urban-rural status not only as cultural dimensions of distinction and discrimination but also as institutionalized forms of distinction in contemporary China in general.