The social social immobility in China and Six Degree of Seperation

During the 1980s, China entered one of its greatest eras and began its new journey under the market ecconomy. The new opening policy lead to an incredible economic growth: the number of people live under the property line (1 dollar per day) dropped from 750 million in 1974 to 70 million in 1998.

Though most people had a much better life than before, the revolution caused the immense inequality in China and led to a social immobility.




Here is a video about the China after the opening policy.

Two major reasons caused the social immobility in China : the huge difference between rural part and urban part and the conflict between the working class and upper class.

The rural and urban

The difference between the rural part and urban part of China become much bigger than before because of the opening policy. In 2010, there are 600 million people live in rural China and more than half of them never have access to get on the internet. 90 percent of people who lived under the property line are from rural part or come from rural part. On the other hand, in some large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, the average personal income is around 15000 dollars a year, which is remarkably close to some developed countries. The in equality is not limited in economic life. According to an investigate made by the Beijing University, the best university in China, 90% percent of its students in past five years came from urban part which had been only 60% in 1980s.
















It is extremely hard for people to imagine the children from the pictures above lived in the same country. It is also very hard for people who live in the rural part take a part in big cities because they lack the modern ideas to live in urban area and they cannot afford the cost of living in large cites. Moreover, the Hukou system, a household registration system in China, limits the immigration from a rural area to urban area. Though it doesn't limit urban factories hire cheap rural workers, Hukou system prevent rural people translate from farmers to citizens of these great cities. In conclusion, the rural part of China is left behind during the industrialization and urbanization.






"The ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and then stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight." (23 Fitzgeraldj)





The valley of ash in the book the Great Gatsby is parallel to the rural part in China. These people build and support the urban cities like Shanghai and New York. The fancy and luxury life system of the citizens in big cites are built on their poorness. The people lived in the valley of ash and rural China supported the large cites but these cities forgot them. They did not share the modern lifestyle of the cities.

Lower class vs. Upper class

The difference between lower class and upper class in China is also very big. In this country, the top 10 percent of people controlled 90 percent of wealth, and they build social hierarchy which causes social immobility. The children from upper class could have a much better education than these from lower class. For example, the cost of an English tutor is the same as a worker's salary. Moreover, in china, children often do the same thing their father did. Doctors children became doctors, officers children become an officer and farmers children were still farmers, workers children are still workers. In conclusion, it is extremely hard for Chinese to improve their social status.

“Everything we are in the world, this paltry thing --- our life– he wanted it. He stabbed him self to get there”. (116 Guare)







The envy of Paul to Flan and Ousia is the same as the lower class to upper class in China. These people find their inferior compare to others and they try to level up their social class. But the society did not give them a chance. Paul because he is black and homosexual, for the Chinese is because the social immobility.

American Dream in China

Like Americans, Chinese also want to improve their social status though hard-working and self-improvement.1980s was a time period which made these dreams come true. A lot of Chinese made them rich and became "the first generation of rich". In fact, my father's generation is also called the "golden generation" because that generation was not only full of idealism but also reached their "American Dream".



China's Durable Inequality: Legacies of Revolution & Pitfalls of Reform



It is hard to believe that a young businessman is come from a poor rural family.



Like American Dream, Chinese also began to realize that it become harder and harder for them to achieve their dream. Though they were hard-working enough, they still could not win the competition with people from rich families--- "the second generation of rich." The second generation of rich hugely benefits from their fathers. They had better education, wider social-network and more opportunity. Chinese begin to find their dreams are paralyzed.







"The boy can't function. And at the end, before he can run away and start a new life. It begin to raining and he folds".(33 Guare)



The paralyzed of Holden in the Paul’s speech was the same as the paralyzed of the dream of these Chinese. They want to change something though their hardworking but they can hardly change anything. Holden want to prevent his sister from the real world and these Chinese want to improve their social class though their hard-working. They dream were so brittle compare to the real world. When it facing the cruelness of reality, it fell apart and nothing left