Values Evolution in Transitional China: An Institutional Perspective

The values are greatly affected by the social and economic environment of a country. Thus, social transformation can lead to the values evolution. China has been experiencing a huge social, political, and economic transition in the past four decades. The previous studies that explore the value changes in China mainly compare the values across the regions or generation cohorts. This research investigates the issue from an institutional perspective. Specifically, we propose that the diversification of ownership types—the essence of the economic and institutional reform since 1978 may result in value change. By surveying 327 participants from the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and 220 respondents from the privately owned enterprises (POEs), the comparisons between SOEs and POEs on four value dimensions—individualism, power distance, risk aversion, and money orientation—were performed. The results basically support cross-vergence theory in the values evolution. The implications and limitations are presented as well.

Meshing Sustainability with Satisfaction: An Investigation of Residents’ Perceptions in Three Different Neighbourhoods in Chengdu, China

Can sustainability and liveability be simultaneously pursued at the neighbourhood level? Adopting neighbourhood satisfaction as a proxy to indicate liveability at the neighbourhood scale, this paper investigated how the residential subjective perception of sustainability factors interacted with neighbourhood satisfaction in the context of three different neighbourhoods in Chengdu, China. This began with a comprehensive literature review to construct the neighbourhood sustainability framework. Then, a total of 510 cross-sectional questionnaire surveys was conducted in Chengdu. Logistic regression was employed to investigate significant associations. The findings revealed that the ‘sense and habit of energy saving’ is the only sustainability factor that is negatively associated with neighbourhood satisfaction in commodity-housing neighbourhood. Compared with intangible factors, tangible or physical sustainability factors are more likely to contribute to improving neighbourhood satisfaction and suppressing moving intention. The study also evidenced the contextual differences of significant associations among danwei, resettlement, and commodity-housing neighbourhoods coexisting in transitional China. This calls for adaptive and contextual rather than standardized, top-down strategies for developing sustainable neighbourhood planning to simultaneously promote sustainability and liveability in Chengdu, China. Finally, a specific contextual framework was provided as policy implications for developing local and adaptive solutions.

Gender Norms and Household Labor: Time Use in the Context of Social Class Differentiation in Transitional China

This paper studies the historical evolution of China’s gender relations through the lens of housework time allocation. In particular, we highlight the role played by social class and income. Drawing upon data from the Chinese Health and Nutrition Survey, we find that during the period 1991–2011, being a peasant or earning less than the spouse was increasingly associated with a higher share of housework. The market process appears to have indirectly improved the social status of women (most likely rural women) married to peasant husbands as measured by the former’s declining housework share. Such changes, however, have not challenged traditional patriarchal norms in the countryside and have even facilitated the rise of a new market-based patriarchy. Policy makers should empower women by tackling the different faces of patriarchy as a whole. JEL Classification: B51, J16, P16