Introduction

The formation of a large-scale subaltern society, along with the growing gap between rich and poor due to redistribution of wealth, has been a noteworthy phenomenon during the social transformation in China since the 1990s. The current subaltern studies primarily focus on Social Stratification Theory and Subaltern Theory. The studies on Social Stratification in China, as well as subaltern studies, explain the phenomena in China based on relevant theories from the West. In the late 1970s to the early 1980s, the Indian intellectual circles started to rethink and criticize the elitist view of history under the influence of postcolonial ideology. Subaltern studies in Europe and American mainly focus on class or class analysis and give an interpretation from the perspective of social inequality. The corresponding background of underclass was the reality that the social conditions deteriorated in highly industrialized countries after World War II.