ABSTRACT
Social mobility is the movement from one status to another within a stratified society.1 In functionalist theory,2 it is the device by which societies ensure that the most important positions are conscientiously filled by the best qualified and not suitable people.3 There is some truth, if not the whole truth, in this assertion. In China, as discussed in the earlier chapters, sport certainly functions as a catalyst or mechanism for upward social mobility for a number of successful sportswomen who are considered suitable for elevation because of their athletic performances. This differential sports performance leads to differential status both in the sporting community and in society in general. This differential ranking and rewarding of athletes, of course, is the embodiment of social stratification4-the ranking of positions in a society in terms of unequal power, prestige, or privilege.5 The irony of this arrangement in a communist society pledged in theory to the equality of all is lost neither on the Chinese nor on global society. Theory is one thing, however, while life is another.
