Date of Award
4-2016
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
Patrick Donnay
Abstract
In 1958 the Chinese government created the hukou housing registration system to control the migration of Chinese citizens from rural to urban areas. A person’s hukou has major implications on their lives; it controls food rations, medical benefits, quality of education, as well as movement within the country. I look to answer the question of whether the hukou can be seen as a bridge with which individuals achieve socially, or is it better seen as a wall that prevents social advancement. This has been a question that researchers have been looking into for many years but there has been no concise answer. I analyze data from the Chinese Household Income Project in efforts to answer this question. My results show that social mobilization various across different regimes of Chinese economic and political leadership. During the Cultural Revolution for example, there was a drastic decrease in the number of citizens obtaining an urban hukou by going to college. In summary, the answer to the bridge or wall question depends upon the regime, and the socio-political system that is in place.
Recommended Citation
Kryshak, Andrew, "The Chinese Housing Registration System (Hukou): Bridge or Wall?" (2016). Political Science Theses and Capstones. 104.
https://pines.bemidjistate.edu/capstone-polisci/104
Included in
Asian History Commons, Asian Studies Commons, Chinese Studies Commons, Development Studies Commons, Income Distribution Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Migration Studies Commons, Political Economy Commons, Political Science Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Public Administration Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Welfare Commons
