Walder - The Remaking of The Chinese Working Class

The Remaking of the Chinese Working Class, 1949-1981 Author(s): Andrew G. Walder Source: Modern China, Vol.
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TheRemaking oftheChinese Working Class,1949-1981

ANDREW G. WALDER
Columbia University
It is commonly and withobviousjustification, that remarked, the workingclass did not make the Chinese revolution.An remark is rarely equallyjustified heard:that therevolution, on the contrary, has madetheChineseworking class.This,baldlystated, is the major thesisof thisessay. The year 1949 markeda sharp break in the continuity of Chinese working-class Not history. ofan unprecedented onlydid it markthebeginning acceleration ofbothindustrial intheaccumulation capitaland (new)industrial butitushered inthebeginnings workers, ofa rapidtransformation of virtually all aspects of working-class existence:the size and thatemployworkers; typeofenterprises are hired, how workers trained,and paid; their job security, social security, and other how theyfindhousingand buy daily necessities; benefits; and are attached howfirmly they to their workplaces of and thenature thissocial tie.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: An earlierversionof thisarticlewas presented at the conference, WorldLabor and Social Change, cosponsoredby the American Council of Learned Societiesand the USSR Academyof Social Sciences,and held at the FernandBraudel Center, State University of New York,Binghamton, fromJanuary 27-29,1983. I would liketo thankGail Hershatter, Carl Riskin and LyndaShafferfor their critical comments on thisearlier and JeanOiformanyfruitful version, discussions about laborarrangements in ruralareas. I am solelyresponsible for whatis printed here.
ModernChina, Vol. 10 No. 1,January19843-48 Inc. ) 1984Sage Publications,
MODERN CHINA / JAN UAR Y 1984
Parts of this storyare quite familiar.Before 1949, China's froma fatecommon to theircounterparts in workerssuffered oftheworldeconomy.A small otherpoor nationson thefringes was dwarfedby a sector of "modern" industrialenterprises massive "secondarysector" of tinyworkshopsand individual high, handicraftsmen. Job tenurewas unstable,labor turnover and the numbersof unemployedwere continually swelled by migrationfromrural areas (Chesneaux, 1968: 48-70; 85-86). Wages were at a level that guaranteedpovertyeven for the and welfare provisions regularly employed.Basic social security and laborlegislation weakat best(Chesneaux, werenonexistent, 1968: 71-79;88-105). is the storyof the significant, oftenstriking Equally familiar and consolidation changesmade after1949-the reorganization of the secondarysectorof small shops; the rapid growthof a in modern industrialsector of large enterprises, increasingly in the heavy industry;the raising of wages; improvements of extraordinary job security; standard of living; attainment social security, major advances in healthcare, lifeexpectancy, have taken All of thesechanges,however, and labor protection. thathave demographic pressures place undersevereand growing in the limited advancesin thepast and willrequire readjustment Not untilrecently, withthereleaseofthefirst significant future. since 1959(i.e., State Statistical batchofstatistics Bureau, 1959) on employment, population, and standardof living,has this clear. One purpose of this demographicfactor been entirely how the demographic forgrowth in articleis to specify setting of in the and standard limited China has living improvement and welfare. ofgrowth, dictated employment, changesinpatterns transformation The leastfamiliar aspectsofthispostrevolution of capital investones. First,patterns are themostfundamental after 1949.Changesinflows altered in China wereradically ment and of capital led to marked changes in formsof industry, in a verybriefperiod-changes patternsof industrialization, muchmore rapid than anything duringits Europe experienced revolution industrial so-called (see Tilly, 1981a; 1981b). The that and on something classexperience, effects ofthison working
/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS Wa/der
wereenormous.Related to mightbe called historical tradition, thischange in flowsof capital was a gradual but fundamental changein theprocessofproletarianization-the processthrough which industrialwage labor emerges from a population of labor (see Tilly,1978).And finally, after subsistence agricultural fora decade or so, a new thesetwo changeshad been in effect system of stratification emerged that sharply differentiated of theworking of a class and indicatedtheemergence segments from thehuskofthe bureaucratically administered statussociety old class society.All of thesechangessuggestthatChina after the birth of thesecond working class in Chinese 1949 witnessed history-one created in the image of a highly centralized, socialiststate. industrializing
REMA KING IND USTR Y, 1949-1957
a very brief Within span ofeight years, China'snewcommunist notonlyremadeurbanindustrial butbegana regime production, in the workingclass itself.Privately historictransformation wereall transformed or another ownedenterprises intoone form of state ownershipand control. The massive sector of small was gradually and nationalized, private workshops cooperativized and thesmallshops werephysically combinedintocooperatives or small, state-runfactories.The equally large numbersof handicraftsmen incities and towns individual wereeither recruited intosmallstateenterprises or grouped,bytrade,intohandicraft The stategainedincreasing controloverindustrial cooperatives. investment (a controlcompleteby 1956) and poured resources into modern, large-scale And by theend of this heavyindustry. period,local governments had gainednear-complete control over the hiring and firing of workers and (Howe, 1971) creatednew and uniform earlier wageand incentive policies,ending practices. The structure ofemployment in Chineseindustry in 1949was ofdual economiesinunderdeveloped characteristic regions ofthe world.Ofthetotalof8.9 million inmanufacturing employed that year,5.7 million,or 64%, wereself-employed individualhandi-
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Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS
another1.6 million, or 18%, workedin small private craftsmen; thatemployed an averageofonly13 people. Only 1.4 workshops or 15%,workedin a sectorofindustrial million, enterprises (with ofalmost500) thatcould be described as an averageemployment modern(see Tables 1, 2, and 3). By 1957, these proportionshad been almost completely of threemeasures.First, reversedthroughthe implementation tolerated individual handicraftsmen, whosepresence was initially and whose numbersin factgrewto 7.6 millionby 1954, were thereafter rapidlyorganizedby specialtyinto small handicraft cooperatives. By 1957, only 760,000 of the individual handiof thesepeople craftsmen remained(see Table 1). The majority sincetheincrease appear to have been absorbedbycooperatives, in cooperative employment roughlyparalleled the decline of individual handicraftsmen during this period. Yet a sizable minority, especiallyafter1955,appear to have been transferred or to nonindustrial either to stateindustry linesof employment. whichgrewto industrial Second, thesmallprivate workshops, employ 2.2 million by 1953, were rapidly consolidated and to stateownership transferred by 1956(see Tables 1 and 2). Large of thesesmallshops (stillverymuchin evidenceon the numbers of Hong Kong) werecombinedto formnew stateor side streets of joint state-private enterprises, as therapiddropin thenumber smallshops(from134,278in 1954to 1,037in 1956),and therapid rise in the numberof state and especiallyjoint state-private from1954 to 1956 shows (see Table 2). (The rapid enterprises overthesame drop in thetotal numberof industrial enterprises the process of amalgamation.) By 1956, only period reflects 14,000wereemployedin thesesmallprivate shops, and thenext yearthecategory droppedout of official statistics entirely. Third,as the total numberof enterprises graduallydeclined and the averagesize of theseenterprises grew,virtually all new wentintoindustry, stateinvestment predominantly heavyindustry,ratherthan into handicrafts. As a result,the proportion employedin industrial enterprises (otherthansmallworkshops) as a totalofmanufacturing employment rosefrom1.4million, or 16% of thetotal,to 7.9 million, or 55% of the total in 1957(see Table 1).
10
MODERN CHINA / JANUAR Y 1984
In sum,in a mere8 years, China'smanufacturing economy was from one overwhelmingly transformed dominated by small and individual workshops craftsmen to one inwhich, forthefirst timein China's history, large-scale, "modern"industrial enterprises dominated manufacturing employment. This process, took place in a period of unprecedented moreover, industrial expansion,especiallyin heavy industry. Total employment in remained handicrafts roughly stationary from 1949to 1957,while industrial employment morethandoubled(see Table 1). The net increaseof almost6 millionin totalmanufacturing employment drewon farmorethanthereserves ofindividual craftsmen. Most oftheseformer handicraftsmen appearto haveendedup in small handicraft cooperatives. This large net increasein employment new entrants represents to the industrial workforce who came from ofurbanunemployed, thehugenumber as wellas from the recentmigrantsfrom the countryside, who were arrivingin unprecedentednumbers. Behind this doubling of industrial was an evenmorerapidleap in industrial employment outputtheannualgrossvalue ofindustrial outputgrew bya factor of5.5 duringthis same period (State StatisticalBureau, 1959: 177). was not onlybecomingmore China's industrial manufacturing in scale, itwas also expanding as modernand larger enormously and production thestatebegan a massiveindustrial investment industries underitscontrol-a controlthat drivein thegrowing was virtually completeby 1957. and in thestructure ofemployment The rapidtransformation had a deeper social and historical in patternsof investment the relevant meaningthatis not made evidentby merely citing statistics.In WesternEurope and the United States, social revolutionthattheindustrial historians increasingly recognize based on modernfactoryproductionand a rapid takeoffof and capitalaccumulation-was onlythelaststepina production inbothtown industrialization muchlonger processofcraft-based and country(Tilly, 1981a; 1981b). And even well into this was oftenorganized the modernfactory industrial revolution, internally along craft lines, with workerspossessingall the and conand scheduling relevant skills,organizing production,
11
tractingwith managementfor the completion of jobs (see 1979: 9-31; Nelson, 1975: 34-54). It was not until Montgomery, after WorldWar I thatmanagement commonly attained control overrelevant skills,reorganized theproduction process,asserted its own controlover production,scheduling, and wages, and established themanagerial bureaucracies thataretodayassociated withthemodernfactory (Nelson, 1975). By leapingacrossthecraft and earlycraft-industrial stagesof industrialization, and directlyinto the modern bureaucratic ofproduction from the borrowed factory style (usinghierarchies Soviet Union), the new Chineseregimeliterally created,almost from scratch, a new tradition of labor relations.' Western traditions were decisively shaped by the long conflict between craftunions and managementover controlof the production share of profitsaccorded each). While process (and over the~ did lose thecontestforcontroloverproducworkers ultimately of withmanagement tion,theirlong conflict shaped a tradition labor relations characterized by collectivebargaining, strict job contracts definitions, specifying wages according to complex job grades,and oftenunion controlover thehiring and training of newworkers (see Sabel, 1982; Cole, 1979: 101-109).In China,on there was never thecontrary, control over anyquestionofworker after production forcontrol. 1949,or even ofworkers contesting The smallcoreofskilled wereswamped industrial workers during the1950sbynewrecruits to industry.2 therefore did Management not need to seize controlover the productionprocess and the skillsinvolved:it createdtheproduction processand called into a and trained new being mass of workers. The stateitself took over the task of hiringand remunerating new workers;prior withregardto wages, apprenticeships, agreements and hiring wereall suspendedwiththeestablishment oflocal labor bureaus and thefinalwage reform of 1956, whichput all workers under thesame setofregulations. In all ofthis, inmarked to the contrast United States and westernEurope, workerswere essentially passive participants in the makingof the new institutions that determined their dailyexistence.
12
Froma comparative historical perspective, thetransformations of the 1950s created the social basis for a traditionof labor relationsmarkedby workerdependenceand managerialpaternalism.3 Unlikeworkers elsewhere who confronted management for control of production,China's industrialworkforce was largely a creationofstate-directed management; insteadofbeing a skilled workforce withproprietary controlover skills,techthe bulk of Chineseworkers niques, and training, by the midthefactory 1950shad entered without skillsand experience, and were trained en masse by management.Instead of having cohesive craftunions, effective collectiveorganization,and a tradition of resistance and commonconsciousness, China's new industrial workforce streamedinto factories withoutcommon and was absorbedorganizationand past tradition, by official, it was to party-controlled "companyunions,"whose function iron out conflicts, distribute benefits, and preventorganized overcrucialresources opposition.Lackingcontrol and a capacity for collectiveorganization,workerstherefore were markedly on official bothpolitically dependent largesse, and economically. Some have suggestedthat the systemof labor relationsthat the influence resultedrepresents of "Chinesetradition" (Howe, 1971;Brugger, 1976),butitis possiblethatwhatweunderstand as Chinesetradition would look quite different today without the institutional sweeping changesof the 1950s.
THE DEMOGRAPHIC
SETTING AND ITS IMPACT
as theyare, as important The changeswe havejust described, No accountoftheremaking of represent onlypartofthepicture. the workingclass after 1949 would be complete withoutan inChina. forindustrialization ofthedemographic analysis setting in all other China's As virtually preindustrial societies, population rural at the startof its period of rapid was overwhelmingly But completely unlikevirtually all of itsnonindustrial growth.
13
Asian counterparts, China alreadyhad an extensive network of and a large, largecities, settled rural densely populationsupported labor-intensive by a highly of agriculture. productive, In system the early 1950s, moreover,the population was growingat an rate. The end of decades of war and civil strife, increasing the revivaloftheeconomy, and theemergence ofan era ofpeace and stimulated stability increasedtotalfertility rates,whileimprovements in publichealthand famine relief loweredmortality rates. All ofthismeantthatChina could notrepeatthedemographic experiences ofearlier industrializing nations.It could not afford to urbanizerapidly inthecourseofindustrial growth, because its citieswerealready very large,itsruralpopulationmassive, and its rural rates of population growthveryhigh.The demographic situationwas thus worldsapart fromEurope at-the startof its period of rapid growth. No matter how rapid the rateof urban industrialgrowth,the shiftof population fromagriculture to industrycould not be expected to reduce significantly the ofthepopulationthatwas employed in agriculture percentage in the near future.In otherwords, China could not, in the near movefrom future, beinga predominantly ruralsociety to beinga urbanone. The demographic predominantly situation compelled a different task: to prevent rural-to-urban migrationfrom thecitieswith swamping job seekersin need ofemployment and housing,and to reduceunemployment among and improvethe welfare of theexisting urbanpopulation(Davis, 1975). This demographicsettinghad an enormousimpact on the reshaping oftheworking class thatwas quiteindependent ofthe institutional changesofthe 1950s.It resulted, bytheearly1960s, in a strict ofcontrol system overall migration from ruralto urban areas, as well as severelimitson thejob mobility of workers. It presented theplannedeconomy witha growing labor surplus that continuallythreatened to outrace the capacity of industry to absorb labor. It dictatedthe adoption,by the late 1950s, of a "highemployment, low wage" policy,underwhichadditionsto the labor forcetook precedenceover increasesin the average
14
MODERN CHINA / JANUAR Y 1984 TABLE 4
Urban Population Growth,1940-1979 (in millions)
Year 1949 1950 1957 1958 1960 1965 1970 1975 1976 1979
Urban Population 57.6 61.1 99.0 107.2 130.7 101.7 102.3 111.7 113.4 128.6
Total
As % of Population 10.6% 11.2% 15.4% 16.2% 19.8% 14.0% 12.4%

--
12.2% 13.2%
SOURCE: Zhang and Chen (1981: 40-41).
withregardto wage. It led to a two-decadepolicy of austerity in of workers' standard improvements living.And it led to the ofdualisminemployment ofa new,stablepattern that emergence within sectoralinequalities frozeinto place some rather striking class itself. related to These outcomes, theworking so intimately willoccupyus forrestof thisarticle. thedemographic setting, During the periodwe have just examined,in whichthe new was still bothoverurban itscontrol Chineseregime consolidating and over industry (and therefore employment opportunities) ofagriculture was notcompleted agriculture (thecollectivization until 1956, the communesnot formeduntil 1958), rural-urban was not yetundercontrol.This migration migration portended social problems ifnothing was done to curtail severeand chronic it. China's urban populationincreasedexplosivelyin the eight
15
to 99 57.6 million from doubling, yearsfrom1949to 1957,nearly million(see Table 4). Over half(56%) of thistotal increasewas and thisgreatly compoundedthe 32% risein due to migration, urbanpopulationthatwas due solelyto naturalincrease(Zhang migrationobstructed and Chen, 1981: 40). This uncontrolled which was progress toward reducingurban unemployment, between18% and 31% in 1949 (Hou, 1968: 369). Hou estimates from1949to inunemployment reductions thatdespitesignificant levelsby 1957.And, had reacheditsformer 1953,unemployment forthe cityof Shanghai,Howe (1971: 39) has based on figures to the thatout of a total of 1.31 millionnew entrants estimated city'slabor forcefrom1949 to 1957,jobs were foundforonly fromruralareas 640,000,or somewhatless thanhalf.Migration insustained resulting from growth rapidindustrial was preventing rate. in theunemployment reductions The problemclearlycould be alleviatedonly by addressing rural-urban migraby stemming threevariablessimultaneously: fertility rates tion by curtailingnaturalincreases;by bringing and byrapidly and countryside; inbothcity undercontrol rapidly throughcontinual ecoopportunities expanding employment sectors. Such a nomic growth,especially in labor-intensive the Great Leap discarded during strategywas temporarily on a vast exclusively whichconcentrated Forwardof 1958-1960, and on an unprecedented increase in industrialemployment of labor forcapital construction at massivemobilization effort shot up from7.9 in industry accumulation. Employment and from1957to 1958alone (Emerson,1965a: millionto 23.7 million rural 130),withmostoftheincreasein labor powercomingfrom was reduced drastimigrants.By all accounts,unemployment (1968: 369), it was reducedfrom cally-in Hou's lowerestimate of the male populationfrom1957 nonagricultural to 19.5% 0.3% theurbanpopulationballooned underthe to 1958. Accordingly, in It increasedby 8.2 million forceof thisacceleratedmigration. 1957-1958alone, and by 1960, China's urban population had of32% ina mere3 years.Ofthis an increase reached130.7million, (Zhang and Chen, 1981: increase,90% was due to migration 40-41). At thispointChina's urbanpopulationcomprised19.8%
16
MODERN CHINA / JANUA R Y 1984
in the nation's degreeof urbanization of the total, the highest years. not equaled in subsequent history, industrial bytheplanners The mushrooming growth envisaged oftheGreatLeap Forwardneveroccurred-worse,itcreatedan wellas a demographic crisis.Much ofthereportedly economica-s in outputwerefalsified and a largeproportion massiveincreases of the actual increases were comprisedof flawed or useless productsthatcreatedadditionalproblemsfortheirusers.Vast inthelaborbill,incapitalconstruction, increases and uncontrolled systemin and in the orderingof materialsleftthe industrial wasteofcapital and shrank, chaos. Labor productivity financial exhausted national supplies were while rawmaterials shotupward, in the initialrapid mobilization.A seriousshortageof usable developed. raw materials machinery, spareparts,and industrial The hoped for explosion of productivity led instead to an and capital parts, as worsening shortages ofmaterials, implosion, dictatedcutbacksand plantclosings. The ensuingindustrial depressionmeantthatthe GreatLeap Forward not only failed to solve the urban unemployment it. The problemwas no longer aggravated problem,but greatly fromrural areas while gradually migration one of restricting underwent a conAfter1960,industry employment. increasing almostequal to theexpansionof 1958. tractionof a magnitude Employmentin all state owned units, for which we have a to complete statisticalseries, indicates a rapid retrenchment pre-1958 employmentlevels (Figure 1). Plant closings and were of a scale such thatas late as 1965,there reorganizations thantherehad statesectorindustrial enterprises werestillfewer been in 1956 (see Figure 2). The problemwas not to restrict further migration,but to remove excess urban labor force to ruralareas. From out-migrations massive,enforced through 1960 to 1965, the urban population was reducedfrom 130.7 thereduction of29 million representing to 101.7million, million over naturalincrease(see Table 4). an excess of out-migration or the disbandingof theirenterprises Workersidled by layoffs were relocated in the villages from which theyhad recently migrated.
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controlswere enforced From this time forward,migration vigorously,especially with regard to large coastal cities. A was established in urbanhouseholdregistration complete system was tiedto rations forgrainand cities, in whichlegal registration inforce fora other foodstuffs has remained (therationing system to thepresent offoodstuffs necessities day), widevariety and-daily ofhouseholdresidence inspections by and coupled witha system local neighborhood committees (see White, 1978).Illegalmigrants notonlyofjobs,butalso offood. to thecitieswereto be deprived in of agriculture In rural areas, the completedcollectivization to keepthe use offoodrationing 1957had madepossiblea related populationon the land. In orderto receivebasic grainrations, forworkin theirproductionteams. peasants had to be present their teamsand stillreceive grain Theycould notbe absentfrom without their teamleader'spermission. Ifone family member was absent, it also reduced familyincome and food allotments work point systems through (see Oi, 1983; Parish and Whyte, was to createa thorough ofenforcement 1978).The result system thattiedpeople to ruraland urbanstatusesthattheyattainedat birth.4 The subsequent bothof China'surbanpopulationand growth class has been due almostsolelyto natural of itsurbanworking increase to theexcessofnatural increase over or,moreaccurately, from thecities.By 1964,whenmostoftherural netout-migration oftheGreatLeap Forwardhad been relocatedin rural migrants numbers of areas, naturalincreasehad begunto add increasing postwar youthsto the labor forceas the large postrevolution, cohortsbegan to reachworking age (see Ivory baby boom birth and Lavely, 1977). Thus began the policy of relocatingurban youthsin ruraland borderareas to keep themoffurban labor markets (see Bernstein, 1977; White,1978). During the decade after1965,in whichurbanpopulationgrewfrom101 millionto 111 million, was a netout-migration there youths (16 of5 million millionrelocatedand .a reverse flowof 11 million,mostlyafter 1971; see Zhang and Chen, 1981: 40-41). The morerapid urban growth ofrecent years(14 million netincrease from1976to 1979)
20
reclaiming youths flowofresettled has beendue to a largereturn urbanstatus(see Gold, 1980; Zhang and Chen, 1981). their situationhas meantthat,forthe last two This demographic have not been able to join the urban decades, rural residents industriallabor force (industryhas, however,come to the to a significant extent,a topic we will returnto countryside birth of thelargepost-1949 below). It has meant,withtheentry employment cohortsinto the labor force,thaturban industrial to attain,even forpeople withurban has become verydifficult the residencestatus. The average size of age cohortsentering each yearhas increased lessthan1 million from urbanlabor force Duringthe First in the early 1950s to over 3 millioncurrently. youngpeople 950,000 of Plan an average (1953-1957), Five Year the labor forceeach year,and almostall wereprovided entered withjobs, most in the rapidlygrowingstate sector(Feng and Zhao, 1982: 125). The figuregrew to an annual average of 2 to efforts millionduringthe decade from1966-1976,bringing areas to 17 million rural and border of (Feng a total people divert and Zhao, 1982: 126).5 As time passed, a permanentjob in the state sectorbecame more rare. By 1977,the assignment age each ranksof the 3 millionurban youthsreachingworking the from a flow of urban swelled return were youths by year Thismeansthat5 millionpeople havebeenentering countryside. since 1977(Feng and Zhao, 1982: theurbanlabor forceannually the growing 131). The types of jobs they are findingreflect to absorbthem.In 1980,only37% of ofstateenterprises inability wereassignedto stateenterprises, thosewho foundemployment 6% became self43% were assigned to collectiveenterprises, oftheold individual laborerforthefirst employed(a resurgence timesince the socializationof industry-seeTable 5), and 14% weregiventemporary jobs (China Almanac, 1981:357). Over 11 recent entrantsto the labor force remained of the million it to moveto cities, forruralresidents becomealmostimpossible to for urban residents difficult has also become increasingly securestatesectoremployment.
unemployed (China Almanac, 1981: 357).6 In sum, not only has it
Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS TABLE 5
21
Self-Employed Individuals in the Urban Economy, 1952-1981

Number (millions) 8.83 9.0 1.01 1.04 1.5 1.71 .24 .32 .81 1.13 As percentage of total collective and state employment
55.l1?
Year 1952 1953 1956 1957 1958 1965 1975

l?79 1980 1981
3.4%
3.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.7% 1.0%
SOURCES: 1952,1957,1965,1975,1979: Economic Yearbook (1981: VI-7). 1980: Economic Yearbook (1981: VI-30). 1953, 1956, 1958: Feng and Zhao (1982:130). 1981: State Statistical Bureau (1982: 105).
of a These demographicrealities, combinedwiththe efforts socialiststateto grapplewith them, spelledthe highly centralized process-proleend in China of the broader world-historical a modernindustrial working tarianization-thathas generated class over the past several centuries.This three-step process, ofruralproducers, a reclassification theexpropriation involving of rural population from peasant to wage laborer, and the transfer ofruralpopulationto urbanareas (Tilly,1978) has been of individualrural changedin complexways.The expropriation with collectiviwas effectively theextensive completed producers in the late 1950s,and peasants became, in zation of agriculture units(paid wages both farming effect, wage laborersin collective in cash and in kind). the process of Withregardto thesefirst two steps,therefore, would appear to havebeenbrought to rapidly proletarianization howeveritshistorical culmination. The third stepoftheprocess, thetransfer ofpopulationfrom ruralto urbanareas-was halted
22
and in some periodsreversed. As a result, sincetheearly1960s, almostall ofthegrowth inChina'surbanindustrial workforce has come fromthe naturalincreaseof the urban population,and thereis some evidence(whichwe willpresent shortly) thatnew oftheurbanindustrial members workforce come disproportionately from workingclass families.The taming of the transformative powerofmarkets and capitalism has beenaccomplished thatchannelsmobility by a bureaucratic system intothenarrow bounds of a statussystem based on residence and birth.
TRENDS IN WELFA RE AND S TANDA RD OF LIVING
These demographic realities haveshapedtrends inwelfare and as well.The periodimmediately instandard ofliving after 1957,in whichtheurbanpopulationcrisiscame to a head, saw a decisive shift in wage and employment patterns, and a slowingof rapid in wage levels and standardof living.After improvements this switched point,the government to what it called a "low wage, highemployment" policy.Wage raises,whichhad led to rapid increasesin theaveragewages of workers from1949-1957, were curtailed. Futureincreases inthenation'swagebillwerereserved inthesize ofthelaborforce. forincreases the Statepolicystressed creationofjobs, not increasesin ratesof remuneration (ratesof capital accumulationremainedhigh). As a result,the average annual wage forstateindustrial fellby 58 yuan over employees thetwodecadesafter and itdroppedevenmoreprecipitously 1957, a peak of741 yuanin 1964to 632 yuanin 1977(see Figure3). from (The dropintheaveragewagereflects to thelaborforce additions at thebottomwage grades,witha generalfreeze formostother are workersat theirexistingrates of pay.) When adjustments in thecost ofliving(State Statistical made forincreases Bureau, 1982: 403, column 2), therewas a drop in the average real industrial wage of 19.4% fortheperiodfrom1957 to 1977,and 16.5% fortheperiodfrom1964to 1977.The trendwas reversed of a nationaldecisionin 1977to devotea larger onlyafter portion thestatebudgetto thewage bill,yetin real terms averagewages
01
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to their levels(see AppendixA.) 1956-1957 stillhave notreturned component space-an important trend affected housing A similar The averagepercapitahousingspace in ofthestandardofliving. an alreadycrowded4.3 square urbanareas declinedby20% from in 1977(Zhou and meters perpersonin 1952to 3.6 square meters after policy changes stressing recent Lin, 1980). Again, only in new housing stock and reductionsin capital investment been reversed.7 has thistrend construction has also put continuous on food pressure Population growth caloric China's of daily As per capita average 1977, supplies. that intake,forbothurban and ruralareas, was 2,105-a figure put itjust ahead of India, butjust behindSri Lanka, and more this than100 caloriesbehindIndonesiaand Pakistan.Moreover, declinedin the two decades since 1957 (see numberhas slightly is WorldBank, 1981,AnnexB: 12-13).Whilefood consumption forurbanworkers thanfortheaveragepeasant, higher certainly has remained a spartan ofalmost one. Rationing theworkers'diet has (exceptvegetablesand fruits) the entirearrayof foodstuffs are set low this rations and in force period, been throughout on whether or not depending largeadjustments enoughto require labor thatrequires demanding an employee engagesin physically more calories. While in principleit has been possible to buy at unregulated (and much higher)prices, additionalfoodstuffs free were restricted markets so severely priorto plotsand private 1978 that supplies were oftensimplyunavailable. Beforethe in 1978,black market foodstuffs legalizationof privatemarkets price,if theycould be found. were several timesthe state-set actual consumpfrom Rationed amountswerenot too different and tion. While the situationhas improvedsince then,finding ofmeat,vegetables, cookingoil, and sufficient quantities buying fortheaverageurbanfamily. a dailypreoccupation coal remains in past decades has also affected The trendofslowedprogress forstate welfare and laborinsurance provisions China'sgenerous providealmosttotalsecurity sectoremployees.State enterprises employment, fortheiremployees:virtually guaranteedlifetime complete disabilitycompensation,paid sick leave, fullypaid fordependents, and subsidized service careforemployees medical
25
family forsurviving deathbenefits pensions, retirement generous payment and trouble, in financial loans foremployees members, 1981). State costs(Kallgren,1969; Korzec and Whyte, offuneral peroftenprovide housingfor significant further, enterprises, medical usuallyhaveplanthospitals, employees, centagesoftheir services to nearby hospitals, and usually clinics, or referral and day-carecenters.This provide meal halls, kindergartens, cost thestatebudgetsome broad rangeof servicesand benefits 527 yuan per state sectorworkerin 1978, an amount equal to 82% of the average state sector wage that year (Economic been have generally Yearbook, 1981: IV-34). State enterprises overtheyears, to employees theservices provided able to improve are automatically of factory earnings because fixedpercentages settinghas The demographic reinvestedin these amenities. not by provisions ofthesegenerouswelfare thedelivery affected procutbacks,but by makingstate sectoremployment forcing to obtain. As the proportionof the more difficult gressively workingpopulationemployedin the state sectordeclines,the slows,and perhapsis reversed. spread of theseservices living would mean stagnantor worsening All of thesetrends standards over past decades were it not for changes in the employmentpatternswithin urban familyhouseholds. The has increased employed gainfully of urbanresidents proportion steadily since 1949. In 1957, 30% of urban residentswere employed. By 1980, this figurehad surpassed 50% (Gongren ribao, 1981).8 This means that while average familysize has of netchange(see Table 6), theaveragenumber little undergone and depenhas inrcreased significantly, members family employed In 1957,each urbanwage earner dencyratioshave plummeted. supported2.3 dependents;in 1980, each supportedless than 1 dependent.As a result,average per capita income increased of50% from1957to 1980,perhapsbya magnitude considerably or morein real terms (see Table 6).9 Surveys completed during the 1920s suggest the Chinese a small nuclear of that era was primarily family working-class in whichan averageof morethan2 of around4 members, family and wereemployed Whyte members (Chesneaux, 1968: 109-112;
26
MODERN CHINA / JANUARY 1984 TABLE 6
Family Data forUrban Wage Earners, Selected Years

YEAR 1964
5.3
1957
Average Family Size Family 1.3 per Wage Earner Monthly 1957 yuan) Per Capita 1957 yuan) 2.3 4.4
1980
4.3
No. Average Members DIpendents
Employed
1.6 2.4
2.4 .8
Avt- age Per Capita (Constant Income D..sposable Averaqce Incomm (Constant
21.0
IS.3
34.2
19.6
17.0
30.1
SOURCE: Economic Yearbook (1981: VI-25). Calculations of wage values in constant 1957 yuan based on Appendix A. NOTE: These annual data are based on separate urban surveys using different samolina frames. The data therefore are not strictlycomparable, and do not indicate a continuous trend. We can take these data as being only roughly indicativeof overall trends in per capita income.
of the family Parish, 1984: Ch. 6, Table 12). The prosperity on the numberof employedfamily members dependeddirectly (Chesneaux,1968:109-112).The past20 yearsin China haveseen ofthistraditional changein an intensification withlittle pattern, of nuclearand extendedhouseholds(Whyteand theproportion famiincluding working-class Parish,1984). But urbanfamilies, lies, have undergone a process of "economic involution"to enhancegenerallivingstandards thatis similarin some respects ofdevelopment to thelabor-absorbing forwhichGeertz patterns the term Recentincome coined involution." "agricultural (1965) surveyshave made it clear thatjust as for the 1920s families employedand not it is thenumberoffamily members surveyed, among the average wage that leads to income differences families the (see Table 7). And it is by increasing contemporary percentageemployed that familieshave been able to cope. socialismhas made the Especiallyfor the state sectorworker,
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28
MODERN CHINA / JANUARY 1984
and thedelivery provisions focusofwelfare thecentral enterprise of services,but it has also made the nuclear (and partially extended) familythe locus of worker strategiesto enhance of living. and standards personalconsumption
SOCIALIST DUALISM: THE NEW HIERARCHY OF IND US TRIAL LABOR
increasesin the has not onlyrestrained China's demography on migration very strict controls and required standardofliving of led to thedevelopment It has at thesametime andjob mobility. different, ofeconomicdualism-quite form a rather pronounced to be sure,fromthe kind of dualism stillevidentin 1949. The labor forcehas intotheindustrial entrants numberof potential the abilityof the favoredurban state sectorto far outstripped ofa separatesector to thegrowth absorblabor.Thishas led,first, that is descended from the of urban collective enterprises involved ofthe 1950sbutis increasingly cooperatives handicraft industrial This had led,second,to the production. in small-scale in ruralareasto collective industries ofsmall-scale establishment absorb the surplus labor power of people who in another to the citiesin searchof would have migrated economicregime And this has led, third,to the employment. nonagricultural labor in urban widespreaduse of various kinds of temporary and benefits of the levels of these pay instances, In each industry. less thanin theurbanstatesector. are considerably employment whenone considers is evenmorestriking pattern Thishierarchical and sectors, little amongemployment mobility thatthereis very of inequalityas a whole, given the current that the structure ifnotvirtually to remainintact, is likely pressures, demographic century. at leastintothetwenty-first frozen,
RURAL WORKERS IN COMMUNE INDUSTRY
laboraresome ofindustrial ofChina'shierarchy Atthebottom who are paid in 20 million residentsof rural communes1O
29
in 1980),and sometimes cash (an averageof374 yuanannually in kind,fortheirworkin small-scale, ownedindustrial collectively and brigades enterprises operatedbyruralcommunes (Economic Yearbook, 1981: IV-55). They work in some 767,000 of these small rural enterprises (80.6% of the nation's total industrial each of whichemploysan average of 26 people. enterprises), These employeesproduced roughly10% of the nation's gross value of industrialoutputin 1980 (Economic Yearbook, 1981: IV-55).' They have ruralresidence statusand receivetheirgrain rationsfromtheirproduction teams on the commune.A small residein small townsundercommune or minority jurisdiction, "collectivevillages" (jitizhen),and do not participatein agriculturalproduction.People withruralresidence statusare not to citiesor to seek permanent to migrate permitted employment in the state sectoror urban collectiveenterprises, wherewages conditions are muchbetter. and working in Theycan participate these favored urban sectors only as temporary, seasonal, or contractlaborers (a separate status categoryto be discussed Positionsin local small-scale shortly). are enterprises, however, because this bringsa major highlyvalued by rural residents, " And thesepositionsallow increasein thefamily's cash income. to escape theelements thecommunemember and thedrudgery of fieldlabor, whichis stilllargely unmechanized. While opportunitiesfor local industrialemploymentcan boost family greatly cash income,in mostcases the majority of familyneeds are still met by the family'sprivateagricultural sidelineproduction(livestock, vegetables),the grain and other food rationsdistributed by the productionteam, and the cash at the end of the year (Parish and Whyte, income distributed in local enterprises, 1978: 59-71). Employment furthermore, can be quite temporary and irregular, depending on thedecisionsof the brigade or team leaders, on seasonal labor demands in and inthesmallenterprise, agriculture and on businesstrends for theenterprise's A minority oftheruralworkers products. maybe able to stay on a near-permanent basis in their industrial butmostcontinue positions, to workinagriculture at leastpartof the year (American Rural, 1977: 216-218). Peasants cannot be
30
the concernswithout releasedto workin theselocal industrial is of theirteam leaders,and oftenthis permission permission thatthepersonwillreturn obtainedonlywiththeunderstanding The wide arrayof duringthe peak harvestseason if needed.12 providedby provisions services, and insurance benefits, welfare unavailfor their are simply further, employees, stateenterprises administraThe commune factories. able inthesesmallcommune and the rural forwelfare matters, tion stillbears responsibility in this respectis at the same level as the worker'streatment is wellbelowurbanindustrial peasant's,which averagecommune in every respect. standards
RURAL TEMPORARY WORKERS
gong) or casual labor (san gong) in nearby state-runcounty or
In additionto thoseemployedin local small-scaleindustries, are able to findtemporary anothernine millionruralresidents on of all types, in largeand smallurbanenterprises employment (State Council,1982).13 from thelegalto thecovert terms ranging This is a very diverse and shadowy group, and government if such statistics exist,are simplynot on its earnings, statistics to be had from workin urban temporary available.The earnings but exceedthoseintheruralundertakings, somewhat enterprises thesejobs, more The to find taken irregular. paths is employment Rural of employment varyenormously. involved, and theterms orcommune mayact officials jobs individually mayfind workers as brokers.The workersmay have fixed individualor group at all; theymayworkin a singleplace or no contracts contracts, varietyof for a week, or stay on for years. The bewildering and oftenquasi-legal jobs stemsfromthe informal temporary whichare largelyoutside of state natureof the arrangements, of The unifying ofthiscategory features and planning. regulation communes are of rural that the are workers residents employment by rosters regulated plantemployment and are outsideofofficial stateplans (Walder, 1981:23-28). labor is seasonal work(jijie One commonformof temporary
This oftenoccupies peasants duringthe municipalenterprises.
31
slack agriculturalseason, when there is a large demand for thatprocessfood or cash cropsseasonal labor in enterprises the sugarrefining and paper-making, especiallycottonspinning, processingof oil-bearingplants and seeds, and the millingof grain. The workermust normallyget permissionfromteam thisperiodand mustusuallyarrange leadersto be absentduring teamcoffers. to pay partof thewages intoproduction A second common formof temporary work,contractlabor thatsurround (hetonggong),is morecommonin thecommunes urban centers.State enterprises occasionally have short-term plannedlaborallocation.Theyoften labor needsthatexceedtheir withnearbycommuneofficials to allocate a make arrangements fora contracted period,usuallyfrom fixednumberof workers to five butsometimes foras longas three years. one to six months, are allocatedamongvariousproduction Thesejob opportunities on which or team(depending brigade, teams,withthecommune, of levelofleadership thecontract) a percentage keeping arranged the contractworker'swage. These workersusually do heavy labor-excavation, construction, moving and haulingphysical cannotbe spared thatthepermanent oftheenterprise employees to do. A variationof thisis "rotationlabor" (lunhuangong), in which a contractedlevel of rural workersis maintainedin an to or commune workers urbanenterprise thatassigns bya brigade basis. themon a rotating A thirdcommon formis a type of outside contractwork a stateindustrial with contracts enterprise (waibao gong)inwhich team made up of rural workersto completea a construction excavation,or movingand hauling. job-usually construction, The enterprise may or may not organizethe workand provide on thecircumstances. and tools,depending The head of materials teamwillbe paid and willdistribute thecash to theconstruction the workers payinga percentage to team or brigade (oftenafter If after payingbribesto local officials). accounts,and sometimes team was organized by the rural production the construction to a team leaders themselves, the moneyis turnedover entirely in maybe paid partly brigadeor team,in whichcase theworkers workpoints.'4
32
Whateverformthis labor may take-and the variationsare has important groupof workers endless-this diverse seemingly theircash can increase greatly in common.While they features arestilltied families and their outsidelabor,they incomethrough economyand itsyear-end team'sagricultural to the production They depend on team or brigade leaders for distributions. usuallyturnover and they in outsidework, engage to permission forgrainrations. inreturn wagesto teamcoffers oftheir portions is tenuousand usually withthestateenterprise Theirconnection brief. They are not eligible for any of the fringebenefits state workersnormallyreceive,except for limited permanent of rural labor insurancewhiletheyare employed.As residents to become deniedtheopportunity theyare officially communes, stateemployees. permanent
URBAN TEMPORARY WORKERS
are theroughly groupamongChina'sworkers distinct A third workin who engagein temporary fourmillionurban residents temporaries, 15 rural the Unlike industrial enterprises. statesector householdsand therefore thesepeople do not have agricultural thatagriculture sourcesoflivelihood do nothave thealternative their To maintain ruralcounterparts. oftheir thefamilies affords and enterprises, in state continuously work must they livelihood, of amount to the proportion theirincomerisesor fallsin direct positioninthe their Butinother respects, areemployed. time they They are is similarto thatof ruraltemporaries. stateenterprise only receive and roster official planned enterprise's the of outside partiallabor insuranceand benefits. in a and compensated are allocated,hired, Urbantemporaries natureof the thesemiregulated of ways thatreflect widevariety contractsthat They oftenwork under oral or written activity. someworkas casual day although rangeup to one yearinlength, in Many,especially of laborerswithno fixedterms employment. for a bureaucratic system thelargercities,are allocated through at labor service stations in their neighborhoods. registering
33
requesting Municipal labor bureaus serve as a clearinghouse, themto and assigning fromneighborhoods workers temporary enterprisesthat have filed requests for temporaries.Some, however,findthesejobs throughcasual inquiriesor personal connections,especially with the smaller enterprises.Urban are usuallypaid a fixedwage thatis set by custom, temporaries worker-slightly at therateof a gradetwo permanent generally below the average pay for manual workersin the 1970s. But at higher ratesthat maybe classified veteran, skilledtemporaries filesat labor bureaus. are fixedin their is quite varied,urban employment While urban temporary in important fromtheirrural counterparts differ temporaries ways. First,theyare more dependenton theirwages fortheir no ruralhouseholdincometo fallback on,and having livelihood, in industry. mustbe morecontinuously employed therefore they intothe and to be skilled are morelikely integrated Second, they process.One majorsourceofdemandforurban core production is in heavyindustrial plantsduringthehot summer temporaries stateworkerstake advantageof their whenpermanent months, Third, becauseurbantemporaries paid sickleaveinlargenumbers. to work to communes to return do not have periodicobligations acquired skillsvalued by enterprises, and oftenhave informally and obedientamong themare more likelyto the more diligent It is not extendedindefinitely. have theirperiodsofemployment at the to years many urban work for unusual for temporaries And finally, because they havean urbanhousehold same factory. their in urbanareas,these and can maintain families registration by an temporariesare far more likelyto be hired eventually While these as part of the permanent labor force.16 enterprise are relatively rare, some workershave used this opportunities in statusas a steppingstone to later employment employment employment and recent Most have not,however, stateindustry. trends that have made permanentjob assignmentsin state more difficult to obtain will make this industry progressively for an one ofyoung proportion statusa long-term ever-growing urbanresidents.'7
34
URBAN WORKERS IN COLLECTIVE ENTERPRISES
workersare statusgroup among China's industrial A fourth the 15 millionurban residentswho make a livingas regular county, administered bytown, ofcollective enterprises employees of 1,000 some currently I I are There governments. municipal and and theyrangein size fromsmall handicraft theseenterprises, factories a few dozenpeopleto medium-size employing collectives small machines or fabricatedmetal parts, that manufacture as manyas 1,000people. As a group,theyhave an employing thelarger especially These enterprises, averageof 134employees. but subsidizedinsomewaybylocal governments, ones,are often are not paid accordingto official statepay scales, theirworkers and they are not fullycovered by the same regulationsthat forstate workers. benefits and welfare providelabor insurance The result is a complex patchworkof paymentsystemsand benefits, are lower butin general, wages,and especially benefits, state employees.The average annual than those of permanent was 622 yuan in 1981, less than wage in collectiveenterprises workerin a of the average wage of a permanent three-fourths stateenterprise (see Table 8). thatoftemporary ofcollective unlike workers, The employment morestablethe the and and larger long-term, is usually workers, ifnotin is infact, theemployment themorepermanent enterprise, thissector, also varywithin and welfare provisions law. Benefits to thestatesector.The relative butare in mostcases quitelimited thesmallest 40% runbyurbanstreet especially smaller collectives, 1980: 293), rarelyprovide more committees (China Almanac, stable employment. Larger than a small wage and relatively runby countyor municipalgovernments, collectiveenterprises whichtypically employbetween100 and 400 people,pay higher and providethe workerwithlimitedformsof accident wages The largest benefits. collective sickleave,andretirement insurance, are usuallyfully like statesectorenterprises, which, enterprises, and whichoften intolocal industrial systems planning integrated employ over 1,000, may also provide some of the benefits accorded stateworkers-a meal hall withsubsidized routinely
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(see and variouskindsofwagesupplements food,a medicalclinic, Liu et al., 1980:20; 79-85). proportions larger employsigniflcantly Collectiveenterprises In thanstatesectorenterprises. ofyoungpeople and housewives the while sector were female, in this of the employees 57% 1981, Bureau, 1982: 121). was 32% (State Statistical statesectorfigure offemales theproportion The smallertheenterprise, thegreater in urban ratesoflabor forceparticipation and youth.The rising areas overthepastdecades have beendue inlargemeasureto the femalesinto this sector (esmobilizationof nonparticipating level). Since the demoand neighborhood peciallyat the street opporstatesectoremployment graphicsqueeze began to affect havebeenplacedin ofyouths largenumbers increasingly tunities, are currently each year.These enterprises collectiveenterprises into the labor for new entrants the most common destination force43% of those given jobs were assigned to collective in 1980(China Almanac, 1981:537). enterprises onlyin thevery enterprise, Once one is assignedto a collective can one subsequently be assigneda state ofcircumstances rarest job. Rural residentscannot obtain permanentstate sector But anothercirbecause of residencerestrictions. employment of the collectivesector cumstanceblocks the upward mobility worker.The statewill assigneach workeronly one job. If that thestatewill laterresigns, is rejected, or iftheworker assignment Most for a subsequent assignment. assume no responsibility collectivesectorpositionsare consideredofficialassignments. has somewhat lesshopethan worker a collective sector Therefore, statesectoremployofeventually attaining an urbantemporary numberof youths who are awaitingjob ment. A significant (thiscan take severalyearsat present)worktemassignments is in the smallestcollectives.But once a youngworker porarily current that job a collective worker, given job, assigned officially will probablyremainin the collectivesectorfor opportunities, life.
Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS PERMANENT WORKERS IN STA TE ENTERPRISES
37
the34 million statusgroupamongChina'sworkers, The largest is theonly enterprises,'8 ofstateindustrial employees permanent in China's welfare state. fully one of thesegroupsto participate There are economic reasons for this. These workers,who produced workforce, compriseonly 42% of the total industrial output in 1981. gross value of industrial 75% of the country's Their average annual wage, 854 yuan, was almost 40% higher and well over thanthatof the averagecollectivesectorworker, incommune fortemporary and workers workers twice theaverage however, (see Table 8). Perhapseven moreimportant, industry and welfare and wage supplements, benefits, are themanyfringe insuranceprovisionsthatthe stateprovidesforthem-benefits whose cash value averaged 527 yuan per workerin 1978, an amountequal to an additional82% oftheaveragewagethatyear enjoyvirtual (Economic Yearbook, 1981:IV-34). These workers a crimeor a politicaloffense, lifetime tenureunlesstheycommit or are guiltyof the most flagrantformsof absenteeismand on thejob. They are paid a basic wage on an irresponsibility the incomethrough 8-gradescale thatgivestheman increasing life cycle, and bonus income is paid them as well. Their in addition, are oftenable to provide them with enterprises, subsidizedmeals,housing,and medicalcare. are able to supplya fullrangeof Not all statesectorenterprises The smaller stateenterprises mayemployas fewas thesebenefits. 100. Their abilityto supplymeals and to providemedicalcare, medical facilities, housing,and otherservicesis usually quite thanthatof thelargercollective and oftenis no greater limited, But all statesectoremployees, withsome variation enterprises. retiregetfullsick leave, and maternity, accordingto seniority, extend medicaland injury benefits. Many ofthesebenefits ment, to familymembersas well. The largerstateenterprises-those thatemploymorethan500 people-often can providefora very
38
MODERN CHINA / JANUAR Y1984
broad arrayofworker needs,withadded rationsand foodstuffs, mealhalls,subsidizedfood,housing, medicalcare,factory clinics and hospitals,kindergartens, nurseries, primary schools,vocationalschools,and otherresources. The largest stateenterprises, which tensofthousands employ inhugecomplexes, arenear-total that completely social institutions envelop workersand their families.
SUMMAR Y: THE NEW D UALISM
The factthatonly37% ofyoungurbanlabor forceentrants in one recent yearreceived statesector job assignments represents a culmination of a two-decadetrendthathas made thisstatusan increasingly closed one-first,withregard to ruralresidents, and evento urbanresidents. The rateof increase in later,withregard thesize of thelabor forcehas simply outpacedtheability of the statesectorto absorblabor. It costsan average capital-intensive of over 10,000yuan of fixedcapital investment to employone in thestatesector(Economic Yearbook, 1981: IV-34). It worker costsonly2,000yuanto employ one worker in an urbancollective and 950 yuan to employone in communeindustry (Economic Yearbook, 1981: IV-56; Feng and Zhao, 1982: 130). The comto absorblaborwilldictate binationofcapitalcostsand pressures ofthisstratified themaintenance laborforce fora very longtime, withperhapsthenonstate sectorsof employment more growing rapidly. There are signs,further, that industrial positionsare being across generations. inherited run Many large state enterprises technical-vocational schools, from which most of their new are recruited. of The offspring skilledworkersand technicians bodies of these employeestendto make up mostof the student is a policyunderwhicha workercan schools. More interesting designate a son or daughteras his or her replacement upon that has gradually become common retirement-something practiceover the past decade. It is current policyto encourage of thissortin orderto enhancelabor turnover earlyretirement (Shirk,1981:577; Emerson,1983: 11-12).So valued is theability
WaIder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS
39
that a rumorthatthis thishighstatusto offspring to transmit a helpedtouchoff apparently policywould soon be discontinued in one provincein 1980 (Gu, 1981). wave of earlyretirements in employment additionalsignsofwhattrends These are simply in statussystem, patternsalreadysuggest-that thisfive-tiered among statuses,is becoming whichthereis verylittlemobility closed at thetop. increasingly of this status order,dictatedby China's demoThe rigidity withcomparabledevelmarkedly contrasts graphicconditions, labor opmentsin the Soviet Union. Rather than experiencing shortages has suffered from economy theSovietindustrial surplus, oflabor in past decades (Feshbach and Rapawy, 1976: 127-130). of industrial on the mobility One resultis a lack of restrictions is, in fact,a widelycited in industry labor-excessive turnover problem(Powell, 1977; Koszegi, 1978). Workerscan therefore is no Sovietcounterpart ease, and there changejobs withrelative to the urban collectivesector.'9ThroughoutSoviet industrialthere has beena continued flowofmigrants ization,furthermore, ofurbanization from tourbanareas.The "Europeanpattern" rural experiencedin the USSR-61% rural in 1950, compared with 35% in 1980 (Zhang and Chen, 1981: 41)-means thatthereare in urban industry for rural residents. genuine opportunities of Shortagesof labor on collectivefarms-especiallyshortages constraint an important able-bodied males-are, infact, youthful, on Soviet agriculture not onlyis theremuch today. And finally, between greater mobilityin the USSR, but the differences are considerably lessthanin China. DuringtheBrezhnev statuses differenceoff ofthegreatest was a continuous leveling era,there incomesin thecityand in thecountryside-and,in thatbetween and pensionswereextended fact,statesectorincomeguarantees to all collectivefarmfamiliesin the 1970s (Hough, 1976: 12; Wiles, 1974: 48). Even if China were to attain Soviet levels of to the entire such an extensionof state benefits development, as the vast would be unthinkable as long workingpopulation ofitslabor forcetoiledin thecountryside. Comparison majority withtheSoviet Union makesit painfully clearthatthedoubling of the Chinesepopulationin the past threedecades has turned
40
thesesocial differences pastcalls forlevelling intoempty slogans. Ironically,there has instead developed a patternof sectoral inequality-especiallywithin the industrial labor force-whose has neverbeen equalled in theUSSR. rigidity
FROM CLASS TO STA TUS: WORKERS IN A B UREA UCRA TIC ORDER
In over30 yearsofsocialistdevelopment, theChineseworking class has beencompletely remade.Industrial workers-thegreat of theworking majority class-have multiplied by a factorof 5, and veryfewof the current members of theworking class have workundercapitalism. everexperienced In 1949,urbanworkers were employedpredominantly in small shops or as individual handicraftsmen; today they are employed predominantly in large-scale,modernenterprises. Before1949, employment was highly unstable, turnover high,and geographic mobility considerable;todayemployment is extraordinarily stable,and turnover very low,inboththestate and urbancollective sectors. Geographic is tightly mobility restricted. Therefore, are tied much workers moretightly to a local enterprise and community. Before1949, workersusually receivedverylittlebesides a wage fromtheir or receivedfood and lodgingpartly employers, in lieu of wages (Honig, 1983; Hershatter, 1983), but today urban enterprises have become focal points for the provisionof welfare,social and the distribution of a wide array of goods and security, services.Real consumption levels have risenmarkedly, but in to makethispossible,theworking order classfamily has assumed increasingimportanceas an instrument for the pooling of individual incomesand housingspace. Before 1949,thehistorical processof proletarianization was proceeding fullforce,concena formerly or semi-agricultural trating agricultural populationin butthisprocesshas nowbeenhalted-agricultural bloatedcities, population is tied to the land and to rural institutions, and is instead coming to the countryside industry in the formof communeenterprises.
41
changeAll ofthesechangesare partof a morefundamental the move froma class to a statussociety.Before 1949, the life chances of workerswere determined by their(disadvantaged) forlabor and commodities.Today the life position in markets are boundedby theirresidence and employchances of workers mentstatuses-two factors into the fivemain thatsortworkers status groups withintoday's workingclass. Whetherworkers have urban or rural residence status, whetherthey have a permanent job assignment, and whether theyhave beengivenan instateindustry notonlytheir willdetermine income, assignment but theirabilityto receiveadequate housingand medicalcare, and to enjoy a whole range of services,amenities,and social A person's in other strictly defines security benefits. status, words, that person'sstandardof livingthroughout his or her lifetime. Once these statuses are attached to individuals,it is almost under the severe impossible to change them. Furthermore, of the has this statussystem population pressure past decades, closed one. The highlyfavoredstate become an increasingly mostcapital-intensive, thesector willnotbe able to absorb sector, the laborthe surplus labor force.For the foreseeablefuture, intensive and small-scale collective sector willabsorbthegrowing statuswilllikely armiesofjob seekers.State sectoremployment in become a slowlydecreasing of total employment proportion the short and middle-run. Unless basic structural changes are made in China's urban economy,the rapid improvement in and standardof livingthat accompaniedthe benefits, welfare, inthe1950swillgiveway rapidspreadofstatesector employment of inequality to a stable pattern withthehighest statusreserved fora fixedand perhapsshrinking minority. from This shift class to statussociety has one finalimplication. This essay began withtheclaim thatthe revolution has created and shapedtheChineseworking class thatexiststoday.It willend thattherevolution withan equally bald assertion has ushered in the unmakingof the Chinese workingclass. The process of and consciousgrowingpoliticalunity, collectiveorganization, ness of common interests in opposition to other classes-a processdescribedby E. P. Thompson(1966) as the"making"of
42
and a century, class earlyin thenineteenth the Englishworking well underwayin China by the 1920s-was process certainly reversedafter 1949. The nrgidstatus distinctions effectively labor forcehave segmentsof the industrial betweendifferent And amongthecore of dividedtheclass irrevocably. objectively the growing dependenceon the enterprise statesectorworkers, for the satisfactionof needs, the lack of mobilitybetween into and the strictchannelingof political activity enterprises, split further within each separateworkplace, approvedchannels workers as theywereabsorbedinto the lower and immobilized (Walder,1983).The oftenstatusesof an economicbureaucracy and political self-awareness historical processofgrowing fleeting class-their consciouswas endedfortheworking self-assertion in a Party dictatedto thembybureaucrats nesswas increasingly claimingto be theirhistoricalagent. In this final sense, this its from different class is profoundly "second" Chineseworking predecessor.
Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS APPENDIX A
43
Yearly Wage Data forState Sector Industry, 1952-1981

Price Index (1950=100)
Consumer
ReaI Wage (1950 Yuan)
Year
Nominal Wage
Real Wage Index (1952=100)
Real Wage Index (1956=100)
1952
1953
515
576
115.5
121.4
446
474
100.0
106.3
81.7
86.8
1954 1955
1956 1957 1958 1959
597 600
674 690 526 514
123.1 123.5
123.4 126.6 125.2 125.6
485 486
546 545 420 409
108.7 109.0
122.4 122.2 94.1 91.7
88.8 89.0
100.0 99.8 76.9 74.9
1960 1961
1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981
538 560
652 '720 741 729 689 701 689 683 661 635 650 640 648 644 634 632 683 758 854 852
128.8 149.6
155.3 146.i 140.7 139.0 137.3 136.4 136.5 137.8 137.8 137.7 137.9 138.0 138.9 139.5 139.9 143.7 144.7 147.4 158.5 162.5
418 374
419 493 527 524 501 514 505 496 480 461 471 464 467 462 453 440 472 514 539 524
93.7 83.8
93.9 110.5 118.2 117.5 112.3 115.2 113.2 111.2 107.6 103.4 105.6 104.0 104.7 103.6 101.6 98.7 105.8 115.2 120.9 117.5
76.6 68.5
76.7 90.3 96.5 96.0 91.8 94.1 92.5 90.8 87.9 84.4 86.3 85.0 85.5 84.6 83.0 80.6 86.4 94.1 98.7 96.0
SOURCE: Nominal Wage and Consumer Price Index, State Statistical Bureau (1982: 403, Column 2; 426, Column 2). Other columns calculated fromthese series.
44
NOTES
we provocative.To documentit satisfactorily, is intentionally 1. This statement kindsof insidedifferent was organized would needto knowmoreabout how production intheprocess.Honig exercised and howmuchcontrol skilledworkers factories, pre-1949 by initiated labor systems betweenthe contract distinction (1983) makes the important (thebaoshenzhi, byothers and controlled (bao gongzhi) and thoseinitiated management femalecotton mill workers).While the former or the contractlabor systemaffecting goes, we needto as faras hiring counterparts western parallelsitscontemporary roughly themselves. bythecontractors knowmoreabout howworkwas organizedinsidefactories stagesinthe historical pastwhatwereprolonged It maywellbe thattheprocessofjumping research. Westbegan even before1949.This questionawaitsfurther from data on the can be inferred ofnewrecruits 2. The impactofthemassiveinflux state inrapidly expanding ofthelaborforce.By 1955,75% oftheemployees age structure were35 yearsof age or younger-fewofthemcould have beenemployed sectorindustry as muchas 70% to 80% of the enterprises, before1949. In some of the new industrial more than 66% of the employeesin were underage 26. By sharp contrast, workforce weremorethan35 yearsold (Emerson,1965b: whichwas notgrowing, privateindustry, 14-15). of modernlabor about theemergence 3. Cole (1979) has made a similarargument as it as short stageofindustrialization, inJapan,butitappearsthatJapan'scraft relations craft from oftheshift thanChina's;therapidity toWestern Europe,was longer was relative to factoryproductionwas less abrupt than China's after1949; and Japan's unions, words,mostofthe thanChina's. In other weak as they relatively were,werestillstronger relations ofindustrial system modern as having created a distinctive Cole identifies factors inChina,especially after 1949.I exploresomeofthe evenmorestrongly inJapanoperated in Walder(1983). in shop-floor relations authority dependence consequencesof worker 4. Despite tightcontrols,roughly13 millionpeasants wereable to attainvarious 1966(Emerson,1983: in thedecade after and urbanresidence typesofurbanemployment and in newlybuilt in small townsin the hinterlands, 8). This occurredmorefrequently supply.Controlsare much complexeswheredemand for labor outstripped industrial in systems of family responsibility in the largecities.The recent implementation tighter ofcontrol in and grainrationbased systems has begunto changework-point agriculture reforms as it operatedpriorto 1979.The recent complex ways. We describethe system on migration. weakenthecontrols of 17 millionand the between the Feng and Zhao (1982) figure 5. The discrepancy of one authors'exclusion of 16 millionis due to thelatter Zhang and Chen (1981) figure after1966,who sentto thecountryside cadres,and "bad elements" millionintellectuals, werealso partof thisexodus of 17 million. in urban China rangefrom10 millionto 25 of unemployment estimates 6. Official is closeto thelowendofthisrange. Emerson million. (1983) arguesthattheactualnumber averageurbanhousing driveto buildnewhousingin pastyears, a concerted 7. After (State space rose to 4.4 square metersin 1979,and by 1981 reached5.3 square meters of from shortages StatisticalBureau, 1982:421). In theSoviet Union,whichalso suffers housingspace, theproblemis nowherenear as severeas in China. Each urbandweller in 1973(Hough, 1976). thereoccupiedan averageof 11.8 square meters were24% in 1949,and 60% thefigures 8. In theurbanareas of Beijingmunicipality, thatI have seen. The sourcemustremain internal statistics in 1978,accordingto official anonymous. thandid inthisrespect better underMao faredconsiderably 9. The Chineseworker underStalin,evenifwetakeintoaccountthatthefigures justcitedinclude Sovietworkers wage increasedby 23% in real duringwhichthe averageindustrial the years 1977-1980,
45
Bureau,1982:403,column2, and 426, column2). StateStatistical terms (calculatedfrom The average real wage in the Soviet Union dropped 45% to 59% from 1928 to 1948 droppedby25% (Chapman, 1979: 166).The realpercapita incomeofurbanwage earners members offamily 1980:116-117).Increasesinthepercentage from1928to 1953(Wright, theimpactoftheseveredrop in Soviet wages,whilein onlysoftened employedtherefore itintoan a less severewage declineand turned actuallyreversed China thesame practice increaseinpercapitaincome.We mustrealize,ofcourse,thattheimpactofWorldWarII formostof thesedifferences. on the Soviet Union maybe responsible in the rural enterprises 10. This figureincludesonly those employedin industrial service,and construction, in transporation, collectivesector. It excludes employment workers and otheremployees. between It does notdifferentiate agriculture enterprises. 11. The average income of ruralfamilesis only a fractionof that of urban ones. is 429 yuan theaveragepercapitaincomeof an urbanfamily to a 1980survey, According is only179yuan(Xinhua, 1981).Only86% of (Xinhua, 1980),whilethatofa ruralfamily teams(Economic as collective incomeinproduction thisaverage179yuanwas distributed theimportance thatunderlirnes of outsidecash income. Yearbook, 1981: VI-30), a figure greatly position outside of agriculture Any peasant who can obtain a wage-paying cash income.This was truethroughout China until1979. his or herfamily's multiplies rural famniles agricultural to specialize in cash-producing Recent reformspermitting in sidelines change this situationin many areas by increasingincome opportunities agriculture. in whichcollective workpointsbased on assigned 12. For new agricultural systems will no longer hold. The effect of recent tasks are no longer used, these statements thatfrequently foreither reforms specializedtasks givefamilies responsibility agncultural of a designated or forthefarming plot ofland willbe to loosen productionteamcontrol teampermission to work This maymakeproduction overthelabor powerof individuals. or unnecessary. The industrial end of the arrangements outside eitherunproblematic willnot be changed. describedhere,however, based on an official of9.31 millionthatincludesall rural figure 13. This is an estimate basis in statesectorenterprises of all typesresidents employedon some nonpermanent The official does and industry. figure services, publicworks, transportation, construction, however.If of ruralresidents in urban collectives, not include temporary employment based on local statistics,it certainlyexcludes the large quasi-legal and informal that takes place. If we subtractthe nonindustrial fromthis employment employment and unreported figureof nine million,and add urban collectivesector employment or quasi-legalbasis,thefigure ofrural fortotalemployment on an informal employment basis is probably of ninemillion. figure residents on a temporary close to the original 14. There is yet another categoryof contractworker,the mingong,who work and publicworks in road building projects. Theyare notdescribed construction primarily herebecause theyare outsideof industrial employment. is a roughone,notbasedon offourmillion urbantemporary workers 15. The estimate fortotaltemporary accounts.The estimate available official takes figures any currently in 1957,cited in Howe (1971: 107) as a baseline,and assumes a moderate employment of temporaries as a proportion of thelabor forcesincethen.This increasein thenumber theyear,but wereemployedthroughout figure does not mean thatfourmillionworkers theyear. in temporary at any timeduring employment participate onlythatthisnumber in is complicated theproblem maybe shifted as well,sincetheseworkers Definitionally, of collectives stationsaccordingto theavailability and out ofstreet bylocal laborservice statesectorjobs. as permanent 16. A seriesofdocuments thehiring oflong-term temporaries permitted in 1971and 1972.This is onlythemostvisibleinstanceofa processthatproceeds workers on a muchsmallerscale. continually
46
as partof a largerstatus be considered properly might 17. These urbantemporaries youngpeople and the 1.13 millionindividual thatincludesthe II millionunemployed in recent steadily Bothoftheselatter groupshave beengrowing laborersand craftsmen. workers have foundstablepositions, portionofthetemporary years.Whilea significant include many recent employed.Urban temporaries most of them are only irregularly buttheyalso includethose entrants intothelabor forcewhocould notfindemployment, them from statesectorjobsor whohavebeenfired from resigned whohave,overtheyears, of reasons. fora variety betweenproductionworkersand all other rarelydistinguish 18. Officialstatistics industrialemployees. But in this case, we know that 28.6 million of the 34 million industrialemployees in 1981 are "workers"-a categorythat includes apprentices, and supportworkers Bureau, 1982: 118). (State Statistical workers, production is thefactthattheykeep of the Soviet workers mobility 19. Symbolicof thegreater own records-in their employment and complete "work-books"-theirpersonalhistories possession (Smith, 1976: 355). The closestChinese equivalentto theserecordsare the on all employees (See Walder,1983). departments dossieror dang'an keptby personnel
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in China." Social FENG LANRUI and ZHAO LUKUAN (1982) "Urbanunemployment Sciencesin China 3, 1 (March): 123-139. and trends FES HBACH, M. and S. RAPAWY (1976) "Sovietpopulationand manpower SovietEconomy U.S. Congress, EconomicCommittee, inJoint policies,"pp. 113-154 Office. DC: U.S. Government Printing Washington, in a New Perspective, Involution.Berkeley:Univ. of California GEERTZ, CLIFFORD (1965) Agricultural Press. ofShanghai'seducatedyouth." ChinaQ. thereturn GOLD, T. B. (1980) "Back to thecity: 84 (December): 55-70. Gongren ribao (1981) "Woguo laodong jiuye gongzuo qude xianzhu chengjiu"(Our (June25): 1. attainsmarkedresults). nation'sworkin labor employment GU GUICHUN (1981) "Weihe chuxian'tuixiufeng?"(Whyhas therearisena 'wind of Lilun yu shijian2 (February):42-43. retirements'?). ofSantiaoshi." theworkers chisels: walking hammers, HERSHATTER, G. (1983) "Flying Modern China 9, 4 (October): 387-419. cotton pre-Liberation workers: and women laborsystem HONIG, E. (1983) "The contract millsof Shanghai." Modern China 9, 4 (October):421-454. 329-396in and unemployment,"pp. HOU, CHI-MING (1968) "Manpower,employment, AlexanderEckstein,WalterGalenson,and Ta-chingLiu (eds.) Economic Trendsin China. Chicago: Aldine. Communist HOUGH, J. (1976) "The Brezhnev era: the man and the system." Problems of XXV (March-April):1-17. Communism in Urban China, and EconomicGrowth HOWE, CHRISTOPHER (1971) Employment 1949-1957.Cambridge:CambridgeUniv. Press. IVORY, P. and W. R. LAVELY (1977) "Rustication,demographicchange, and in Shanghai." Asian Survey17 (May): 440-455. development workers," pp.540-573in and China'sindustrial KALLGREN, J.K. (1969) "Social welfare Politicsin Action.Seattle,WA: Univ. of (ed.) ChineseCommunist A. Doak Barnett Press. Washington KORZEC, M. and M. K. WHYTE (1981) "Reading notes:the Chinese wage system." China Q. 86 (June):248-273. in Europeansocialist and employment structure KOSZEGI, L. (1978) "Labour turnover Int. Labour Rev. 17: 3 (May-June):305-318. countries." jiti LIU GANG, WANG GUOCHENG, and XING YICHU (1980) Shanghai chengshi suoyou zhi gongye yanjiu (A Study of Urban Collective Industryin Shanghai). Shanghai: Renminchubanshe. MONTGOMERY, DAVID (1979) Workers' Control in America. New York and Cambridge:CambridgeUniv. Press. oftheNew FactorySystem Origins NELSON, DANIEL (1975) Managersand Workers: in the UnitedStates, 1880-1920.Madison, WI: Univ.of WisconsinPress. China: The Politicsof Grain 01, JEAN C. (1983) State and Peasant in Contemporary ofPoliticalScience,Univ.ofMichigan. Department Ph.D. Dissertation, Procurement. PARISH, WILLIAM L. and MARTIN KING WHYTE (1978) Village and Familyin China. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Contemporary POWELL, D. E. (1977) "Labor turnoverin the Soviet Union." Slavic Rev. (June): 268-285. New SABEL, CHARLES (1982) Workand Politics:The Divisionof Labor in Industry. York and Cambridge:CambridgeUniv. Press. ofindustrial SHIRK, S. L. (1981) "RecentChineselabourpoliciesand thetransformation in China." China Q. 88 (December): 575-593. organisation SMITH, HEDRICK (1976) The Russians. New York: Ballantine. State Council (1982) "Guowu yuan guanyuyangekongzhinongcunlaodonglijincheng zuogong he nongyerenkouzhuanweifeinongyerenkoude tongzhi"(State Council
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oftheagricultural labor forceintocities controlofthemovement noticeon thestrict population). ofagricultural populationintononagricultural forworkand theturning 30 December 1981. Zhonghua renmingongheguoguowuyuangongbao 374 (10 February): 885-887. State Statistical Bureau (1982) Zhongguo tongji nianjian 1981 (China Statistical daobao she. Yearbook 1981). Hong Kong: Xianggangjingji gongheguo -(1959) Weida de shi nian. Zhonghuarenmin jingji he wenhuajianshe on theAccomplishments ofEconomic (The Ten GreatYears: Statistics tongji chengjiu in the People's Republic of China.) Beijing: Renmin and Cultural Construction chubanshe. THOMPSON, E. P. (1966) The Making of the EnglishWorkingClass. New York: Vintage. and just plain deindustrialization, TILLY, CHARLES (198 Ia) 'Protoindustrialization, on Social Organization, forResearch inEuropeancapitalism."Center industrialization Univ. of Michigan.Working Paper No. 235. Center for ofindustry in Europe, 1500-1900." b) "Flows ofcapitaland forms ---(1981 Paper No. 237. Researchon Social Organization, Univ.of Michigan.Working and research."CenterforResearchon Social theory (1978) 'Proletarianization: Paper No. 202. Univ.of Michigan.Working Organization, in and culturesof authority WALDER, ANDREW G. (1983) 'Organized dependency Chineseindustry." J. of Asian StudiesXLIII, 1 (November):51-76. Workand Authority in ChineseIndustry. Department Ph.D. Dissertation. ---(1981) of Sociology,Univ.of Michigan. WHITE, LYNN T., III (1978) Careersin Shanghai: The Social Guidance of Personal in a DevelopingChineseCity,1949-1966. CA: Univ.of California Berkeley, Energies Press. WHYTE, MARTIN K. and WILLIAM L. PARISH (1984) UrbanLifein Contemporary China. Chicago: Univ.of Chicago Press. ofIncome:East and West.Amsterdam and Oxford:North WILES, P. (1974) Distribution Holland. World Bank (1981) China: Socialist Economic Development.Document of the World Bank. pp. 113-134in WRIGHT, A. W. (1980) "Soviet economic planningand performance," and RobertSharlet,(eds.)The Soviet Stephen,F. Cohen, AlexanderRabinowitch, Indiana Univ. Press. Union Since Stalin. Bloomington: XinhuaNewsAgency zongshouruzengjiadao yibaiqishijiu (1981) "Nongcunrenjunnian ribao(3 to 179yuan).Renmin yuan"(Averageannualincomeofruralpeopleincreases January):1. "Jueda duoshu zhigongjiating shouru xianzhu zengzhang"(Household ---(1980) Renminribao of workers and staff increases incomeof the vast majority markedly). (31 December): 1. ZHANG ZEHOU and CHEN YUGUANG (1981) "Shi lun woguo renkoujiegou yu between discussionof therelationship guominjingji fazhande guanxi"(A tentative China's population structureand the developmentof the national economy). Zhongguoshehuikexue4: 29-46. ZHOU SHULIAN and LIN SENMU (1980) "Tantan zhuzhai wenti"(On the housing problem).Renminribao (5 August):5
Andrew G. Walder is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Associate of the East Asian Institute at Columbia University.

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The Remaking of the Chinese Working Class, 1949-1981 Author(s): Andrew G. Walder Source: Modern China, Vol.

TheRemaking oftheChinese Working Class,1949-1981

MODERN CHINA / JAN UAR Y 1984

/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS Wa/der

REMA KING IND USTR Y, 1949-1957

\ 9 4 U('> '0 4 00 -- ^ O ~ ~~~N t^ ~~

s 00 1 oo '0 ~~~~~ ~ ~~~~~~ 00 to '.~~~~~3% -4C)0 ~~co ~~~~

(~O C~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Y c'r c'e 0

0)+J ufCO-X O O ~~~ 4-~~~~~ s~~-)

*CcO C04 U Su3

coo C,)t (()

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS

MODERN CHINA / JANUAR Y 1984

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS

MODERN CHINA / JANUAR Y 1984

SETTING AND ITS IMPACT

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS

MODERN CHINA / JANUAR Y 1984 TABLE 4

Urban Population Growth,1940-1979 (in millions)

As % of Population 10.6% 11.2% 15.4% 16.2% 19.8% 14.0% 12.4%

SOURCE: Zhang and Chen (1981: 40-41).

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS

MODERN CHINA / JANUA R Y 1984

co-v 0V) a, a, CD 0 <,

r- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ c~~~~~~~~

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS

MODERN CHINA / JAN UAR Y 1984

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS TABLE 5

Self-Employed Individuals in the Urban Economy, 1952-1981

Year 1952 1953 1956 1957 1958 1965 1975

3.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.7% 1.0%

MODERN CHINA / JANUAR Y 1984

TRENDS IN WELFA RE AND S TANDA RD OF LIVING

MODERN CHINA / JANUAR Y 1984

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS

MODERN CHINA / JANUARY 1984 TABLE 6

Family Data forUrban Wage Earners, Selected Years

No. Average Members DIpendents

1: E CL3 > '4- a) ( < 0 Q- Q

MODERN CHINA / JANUARY 1984

SOCIALIST DUALISM: THE NEW HIERARCHY OF IND US TRIAL LABOR

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS

MODERN CHINA / JAN UAR Y 1984

gong) or casual labor (san gong) in nearby state-runcounty or

This oftenoccupies peasants duringthe municipalenterprises.

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS

MODERN CHINA / JANUA R Y 1984

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS

MODERN CHINA / JANUA R Y 1984

URBAN WORKERS IN COLLECTIVE ENTERPRISES

C~~4) -4U, .r E~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~C

'O ---O n 3 >

c~~~~~~~~~~~~~0 C .: Cu ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 0 Cu-Cuu4 -z 4)co co a)0

MODERN CHINA / JANUAR Y 1984

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS PERMANENT WORKERS IN STA TE ENTERPRISES

MODERN CHINA / JANUAR Y1984

WaIder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS

MODERN CHINA / JANUA R Y 1984

FROM CLASS TO STA TUS: WORKERS IN A B UREA UCRA TIC ORDER

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS

MODERN CHINA / JANUA R Y 1984

Walder/ CHINESE WORKING CLASS APPENDIX A

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