Social Structure of World Regions: Mainland China

The sociological study of Mainland China since 1949 confronts a number of obstacles, but at the same time the nature of the society and the distinctiveness of its program for social change may hold valuable lessons for scholars studying a number of important sociological problems. The number of sociologists actively engaged in the study of Maoist China is small and society is vast, relatively inaccessible, less than a generation old, and still in the midst of turbulent change. Established findings, based on what would be considered research in more open societies, are limited, but because of the extraordinary nature and significance of the social experiment, this review includes controversial issues not yet fully substantiated by research. For a number of reasons, the Chinese case is useful for checking whether common sociological ideas about how societies are organized and change are correct or not. First, traditional social structure was distinct in many ways from the Western societies with which sociologists are most familiar. To mention just a few characteristics, China lacked an institutionalized church or a powerful religious elite, had a highly developed lineage system operating in the midst of a centralized bureaucratic (and nonfeudal) political structure, and combined an emphasis on status deference with high mobility into elite positions through a rigorous examination system. Also, while China is classified among the developing societies today, her historical experience differs in significant ways from virtually all the rest of the