Material and Spirit

Chinese Social Stratification Issue 2016

“In the future, Chinese society will face a series of stern challenges,” said the China Family Panel Studies 2015 report, produced by the Institute of Social Science Survey at Peking University.“At the same time that our nation’s total wealth has rapidly grown, there are increasingly pronounced imbalances in Chinese society,” it said. “This is reflected not only in the polarization of incomes and wealth, but also in plainly observable disparities in education, health and other social protections.” The report, drawing on the results of an annual survey covering more than 35,000 adults and 13,000 families, warns that more needs to…

Chinese Material and Spirit Issue 2016

A global poll of attitudes toward wealth has found what many domestic critics allege already: Chinese today are just too materialistic. The survey was conducted by the French market research company Ipsos in September and polled more than 16,000 adults in 20 countries. Chinese respondents topped the list in measuring success by their possessions, coming in more than double the global average, according to the results published last week. Seventy-one percent of Chinese respondents agreed with the statement “I measure my success by the things I own,” far higher than respondents from its East Asian neighbors South Korea, at 45 percent,…