Social mobility in China, 1645–2012: A surname study

Abstract

This paper estimates the rate of intergenerational social mobility of status in Late Imperial, Republican and Communist China by examining the changing social status of originally elite surnames over time. It finds much lower rates of mobility in all eras than previous studies have suggested, though there is some increase in mobility in the Republican and Communist eras. But even in the Communist era social mobility rates are much lower than are conventionally estimated for China, Scandinavia, the UK or USA. These findings are consistent with the hypotheses of Campbell and Lee (2011) of the importance of kin networks in the intergenerational transmission of status. But we argue it more likely reflects mainly a systematic tendency of conventional mobility studies to overestimate rates of social mobility of status, where status is partially measured by income, wealth and education at individual or household level.