Trends in social mobility in postrevolution China

Significance Accompanying a sharp rise in economic inequality in China since its economic reform, two countercurrents characterize the trends in China’s intergenerational social mobility. On the one hand, industrialization in postreform China has promoted occupational mobility. On the other hand, both occupational mobility net of industrialization and educational mobility in China have trended downward, reaching levels similar to those in the United States in the most recent cohort. In earlier cohorts, whereas social mobility for Chinese men was unusually high, social mobility was particularly limited for Chinese women from rural hukou origin.