ABSTRACT
Chinese analysts are agreed that the destratified Chinese society before
1978, comprising two classes (workers and peasants) and one stratum
(intellectuals), has stratified into much more complex structure as a result of
three decades of reform. This fundamental change has been the subject of
burgeoning research in the last decade or so, which has sparked a nation-
wide debate on China’s actual and ideal social configurations. The most
contentious question in the debate is whether stratification is creating rela-
tions of conflict and how it is impacting on the country’s socio-political order. Though the answers differ vastly, there have been two interrelated
trends: One is the increasing downplay of social polarisation; the other is
the gravitation of interest towards the middle classes by various names.
