ABSTRACT
Since the end of the 1970s, and the introduction of an incremental series of measures that have sought to reform the previously existing system of state socialism, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has experienced a sustained period of rapid economic growth, and dramatic social change. The clear winners in this process have been those in the new rich socio-economic categories, who have emerged with and driven much of the change. They include those who have established new kinds of enterprise that reach beyond the previous economic structures, as well as those who have provided new services to meet the demands of both the state and society in a period of rapid economic restructuring and subsequent social change (Goodman 1996). The clear losers have been the peasantry in the poorer rural areas, especially those located in the interior provinces of China’s West.1
