Introduction

Economic development and dramatic improvement of living standards in many parts of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) during the past three decades of economic reforms have been hailed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and many commentators in the international arena as the most spectacular achievements in the history of humanity. These self-congratulatory voices have been the ‘main melody’ in the official Chinese media, according to which myriad evidence of the impacts and consequences of reforms are assembled, assessed and interpreted. What belies this narrative of miracle is the often inconvenient fact that three decades of economic reforms have also transformed China from one of the world’s most egalitarian societies into one of the most unequal in Asia and the world (Harvey 2005; Lin 2006; Anagnost 2008; Zang 2008; Davis and Wang 2009; Lee and Selden 2009; Whyte 2010).