The Structure and Evolution of Chinese Social Stratification (review)

The Structure and Evolution of Chinese Social Stratification is an extremely ambitious work. Li Yi clearly has two things in mind when writing this book. First, Yi sees a huge gap in the existing literature – while in recent years there has been burgeoning interest in social stratification in China, very few systematic attempts have been made in the English literature. Second, Yi is inspired by the work of Charles Tilly, Immanuel Wallerstein and Mao Zedong. Mao published “Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society” in as early as 1926. Eighty years later, Yi seeks to continue this work and provide a full picture of the evolution of social stratification in China. Wallerstein’s analysis of global capitalist economy on a macroscopic level and Tilly’s call for “big structures, large processes, [and] huge comparisons” are the theoretical models Yi seeks to follow. So, the book in front of us sets it apart from most others – it provides a historical sociology of social stratification in China and it is intended to cover 2,000 years of Chinese history.

The merits of The Structure and Evolution of Chinese Social Stratification lie in two areas. First, for those who are not China experts, this book can serve as a good introduction. Divided into eight chapters, the book first tries to justify its theoretical premise and methodological approach, and then devotes five chapters to the discussion of Chinese social stratification in five historical periods: pre-1949, 1949–1959, 1959–1979, 1979–1993, and post-1993. Chapter 7 concentrates on three main aspects of the Chinese social stratification system, namely the national university entrance examination, the household registration system and the work unit. The last chapter is a summary of social stratification in post-1949 China, and offers Yi’s prediction of the stratification system’s prospect. The book is jargon-free, and readers can easily find the information that they need. Second, Yi’s effort to provide a historical sociology of Chinese social stratification should be endorsed. Thanks to Victor Nee, Andrew Walder and other scholars’ pioneering work, social stratification in China has become a growth industry in sociology, as can be seen by the increasing number of articles engaging this issue published in major sociology journals. While more and more disciplinarily bounded, under close scrutiny, the field has been dominated by regression analysis and most existing studies only look at one historical period – a historical vision is lacking. Prominent sociologists, including Pierre Bourdieu (1992), Anthony Giddens (1979) and Charles Tilly (1981), have cogently argued that all sociology should be historical. A sound understanding of China’s current social system cannot be achieved without the grasp of its past.

Unfortunately, despite its merits, The Structure and Evolution of Chinese Social Stratification is ultimately disappointing. First, readers expecting a deep historical account of Chinese social stratification will be disappointed by the little space devoted to Chinese social stratification before 1949. Although Yi claims to offer an account covering 2,000 years of history, there is only one chapter about pre-1949 China, which makes the book imbalanced, and while often interesting, this chapter is essentially oversimplified and lacks originality. Surprisingly, as a Chinese social scientist, Yi relies very heavily on English literature in this chapter. While I have no doubt of Yi’s knowledge of Chinese history, this chapter does not make clear that Yi has any first-hand data or has extensively read literature in Chinese (or even in English). Ultimately, the book’s historical vision is severely handicapped by its thin historical approach.

Second, the book fails to live up to its announced overall objective of offering a historical sociology of social stratification in China. Although Yi discusses several historical sociologists’ work in Chapter 1, the methodology of historical sociology is not integrated into his discussion of Chinese social stratification. Indeed, Yi does not even mention Tilly or Wallerstein’ name in the following chapters. What we read in these chapters is basically an archival study and essentially descriptive...