To me, it’s simple: the middle class are people who are not poor or rich, who have disposable incomes to consume, and who can follow their own dreams and pursue their own futures.Helen Wang clearly wants to keep things simple, as she comment on some of the other definitions. I disagree with her and think the qualification is mainly a political category in the west and therefore does not apply automatically to any category in China. With Wang's all to simple definition even Burma will have a middle class. Of course, you can bring it back to a basic buffer between the rich and the poor, but even when you take that simple approach, the middle class in Shanghai will be defined differently in Lhasa.
At Chinabiz Speakers we are contemplating some major debates on the middle class in China. It is still very much in the phase of contemplation and of course, we mainly want to encourage the debate, not finish it. In our business we have an interest in getting the debate going.
6 comments:
In our post we argue the importance of a political element of a Chinese 'middle class' discussion. Consider it as our attempt to get the discussion going (although we are not in the business of getting it going)...
The middle class is in between rich and poor. Of course. But you have to agree and use measurable parameters to define.
It can be income (higher than 8000 rmb/month?). Education (at least secondary school?). Savings. Having a car. Travelling in China and/or abroad. Buying foreign brands regularly.
Dragonomics once did a study on that. Their ‘consuming China’ group can be considered as the middle class. The ‘surviving China” group is not.
PS. If you’re among the 200 millions that have internet at home (or at least easy access) then you probably are a middle class adult or kid in middle class family.
I agree with Peter: you cannot only look at the figures, but do need a good understanding of the political climate different groups are operating in. Bringing the middle class discussion back to only figures is going to be contraproductive.
Fons,
Thanks for the article. But I really don't understand what is this fuss all about. In America, if you ask people what is the "middle class," they would tell you exactly the same thing: they are not rich or poor, they want to send their kids to college, own houses, etc. I agree the term may have many connotations such as consumerism, environment and energy, democracy, culture, lifestyle, spirituality, etc. etc. But it's not any more political than some people want to make it to.
What is called the "middle class" depends very much on the time and the place where you use it. More than in Europe, in the US the ambition to be middle class is overwhelming, even when people are according to economic standards rather poor or rather rich.
In China being "middle class" is hardly an ambition. When people have an ambition, they want to be filthy rich - although not everybody might achieve that goals. Being middle class my Chinese friends see as losers, who are satisfied with less than they can get.
Not true, Fons. You may talked to the elites or the super rich. People I talked to consider the middle class a badge of honor. Some of them earn much more than what I think to be a middle class, but they still humbled themselves "not a middle class yet." Somehow they associate the middle class with certain lifestyle and intellectual capacity. But I see you point, and I also met people like that, whom I don't consider the middle class.
Post a Comment