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China Distinctive Features
Legal status as an urban dweller in China is prized
(see Differentiation
, this ch.). As a result of various state policies
and practices, contemporary Chinese urban society has a distinctive
character, and life in Chinese cities differs in many ways from
that in cities in otherwise comparable developing societies. The
most consequential policies have been the household registration
system, the legal barriers to migration, the fostering of the allembracing work unit, and the restriction of commerce and markets,
including the housing market. In many ways, the weight of official
control and supervision is felt more in the cities, whose
administrators are concerned with controlling the population and do
so through a dual administrative hierarchy. The two principles on
which these control structures are based are locality and
occupation. Household registers are maintained by the police, whose
presence is much stronger in the cities than in the countryside
(see Public Security Forces
, ch. 13). Cities are subdivided into
districts, wards, and finally into small units of some fifteen to
thirty households, such as all those in one apartment building or
on a small lane. For those employed in large organizations, the
work unit either is coterminous with the residential unit or takes
precedence over it; for those employed in small collective
enterprises or neighborhood shops, the residential committee is
their unit of registration and provides a range of services.
The control of housing by work units and local governments and
the absence of a housing market have led to a high degree of
residential stability
(see The Work Place
, this ch.). Most urban
residents have spent decades in the same house or apartment. For
this reason, urban neighborhoods are closely knit, which in turn
contributes to the generally low level of crime in Chinese cities.
Since the early 1950s, the party leadership has consistently
made rapid industrialization a primary goal and, to this end, has
generally favored investment in heavy industry over consumption.
For cities, these policies have meant an expansion of factories and
industrial employment, along with a very low level of spending in
such "nonproductive" areas as housing or urban transit systems
(see Economic Policies, 1949-80
, ch. 5). The emphasis on production, and
heavy industry and the discouragement of consumption and exchange,
along with state takeovers of commerce and the service sector, led
to cities having many factories but no peddlers, snack stalls, or
entertainment districts. In the 1950s and early 1960s, major
efforts were made to bring women into the paid labor force. This
served the goals of increasing production and achieving sexual
equality through equal participation in productive labor, a classic
Marxist remedy for sexual inequality. By 1987 almost all young and
middle-aged women in the cities worked outside the home.
Chinese cities, in contrast to those in many developing
countries, contain a high proportion of workers in factories and
offices and a low proportion of workers in the service sector.
Workers enjoy a high level of job security but receive low wages.
Between 1963 and 1977 most wages were frozen, and promotions and
raises were very rare. Even with the restoration of material
incentives in the late 1970s, two general wage raises in the 1980s,
and increased opportunities for bonuses and promotions, wages
remained low and increased primarily with seniority. As in most
parts of the world, one reason that so many Chinese urban women are
in the work force is that one income is not enough to support a
family.
In the 1980s it was possible to purchase such consumer durables
as television sets and bicycles on the market, but housing remained
scarce and subject to allocation by work units or municipal housing
bureaus. Although housing was poor and crowded, Chinese
neighborhoods had improved greatly over the slum conditions that
existed before 1950. Most people were gainfully employed at secure
if low-paying jobs; the municipal government provided a minimal
level of services and utilities (water and sanitation); the streets
were fairly clean and orderly; and the crime rate was low
(see Wages and Benefits
, this ch.;
Living Standards
, ch. 5).
Data as of July 1987
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