Middle Class China: Dreams and Aspirations

Abstract

An important part of the China Dream is the development of a comfortable middle class lifestyle for all. This is not such a surprising development since a public discourse surrounding the emergence of a middle class has been in the making for over a decade. There is though nonetheless an apparent paradox in a Communist Party embracing the middle class. Understanding how and why this has occurred, as well as attempting to identify the consequences for social stratification in China is clearly important. While it would seem reasonable to attempt to analyse China’s middle class in terms of wealth, or occupation or even lifestyle, it is argued that this is fairly meaningless: in this context the middle class is more a discourse than social structure.