Abstract
After two decades of reform, the success of China’s economic policies has been widely recognized. The economic reforms begun in the late 1970s have successfully brought Chinese people in the mainland a decent life and improved standard of living. More importantly, the drastic transformation and structural change affecting post-Mao society have allowed more social mobility and enhanced the possibility for social re-stratification. The process of marketization has not only given the economic sphere a new shape but also led to evident changes in the outlook of Chinese society; new values and a new social ethos have emerged which have few features in common with the Mao regime (Ikels, 1996; Tao and Renzhong, 1998). Urbanization, economic advances, increases in literary freedom, expanded education, media exposure, and more frequent contacts with the West all give rise to heightened aspirations and expectations, which have inevitably resulted in radical changes in the social structure and unquestionably given post-Mao society a new shape. Living against a less regulated socio-political context, together with enhanced economic independence, Chinese citizens nowadays gain more right to internal migration, to purchase a wide range of products and to determine their own lifestyles. The continual struggle for professional autonomy and the expansion of people’s control over the public domain in the mainland again suggests that a relatively autonomous society is in the process of formation.
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© 2000 Ka-ho Mok
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Mok, Kh. (2000). Introduction: Economic Growth and Quiet Social/Political Revolution. In: Social and Political Development in Post-Reform China. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230286436_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230286436_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-40776-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-28643-6
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