Based on an ethnographic study of a middle class community in Beijing, this research attempts to investigate the formation of a specific segment of China's middle class, namely, the white-collar employees and the new generation of private entrepreneurs in urban China. It will demonstrate how this segment of China's middle class deliberately differentiate themselves from other social groups through symbolized everyday domestic practices, and capture the latest development of domestic lifestyles of China's middle class. / The economic reform in contemporary China has brought about transformations in its socio-economic and political environment. The implementation of a series of policies that changed the occupational structure, reinvented resources allocation mode, and increased the purchasing power of China's urban citizens has facilitated the emergence of a new social stratum. As this new middle stratum is still emerging and expanding, its composition is pluralistic. To describe the emerging affluent social classes, simply looking at economic indicators may not be adequate. Lifestyle factors have become important components in the shaping of China's new middle class. / Using Bourdieu's theoretical schema, three inter-related analytical questions regarding to domestic life patterns of China's middle class will be addressed in this research: their aspirations of home, how this expected domestic life is protected through collective actions, and how a local system or a moral order of behavior is gradually formed through mundane and ordinary everyday interactions. A legally recognized and protected homeownership has become the bottom line, upon which the middle class continue to develop higher requirements to live comfortably and safely at home. From these everyday practices in the field of domestic life, we shall see how the emerging middle class in China is establishing a lifestyle, forming a shared social identity, and constructing social space in the social structure. / Liu, Shuo. / Adviser: Lui Tai Lok. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-10, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-196). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

published_or_final_version / Economics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis will examine the experiences of China's urban private businesspeople over the reform-era (1978--present). I will show that this socioeconomic group has experienced colossal improvements in the political, economic and social environment in which they operate their businesses. In contrast to the early reform years, in the 1990s businesspeople have, in the words of a businesswoman I interviewed, been "given the green light." The business climate is so favourable that successful private economic actors have become an elite and privileged group. However, no analysis of China's private businesspeople is complete without attention to the issue of gender. Persistent gender bias and discrimination against women in Chinese society has a negative impact on the ability of businesswomen to take advantage of the friendly new business environment and its attendant opportunities. / The overall trend toward a basically positive business climate and the gender specific challenges experienced by businesswomen will be examined primarily by presenting personal portraits of four private businesspeople selected out of forty formal interviews conducted by the author in the spring and summer of 1998 in Tianjin city, northeastern China.