In Contemporary China Mainland And Hong Kong "middle Class" Study

The issue of "middle class" has been of great concern by the experts, scholars, and public mass media. Middle class occupies a pivotal position in the progress of social stability’s maintaining, social stratification’s rationalizing, social justice’s keeping and social development’s balancing, as an important component of the proposal on social stratification and social mobility. This paper shows the contemporary research results on "middle class" in the China mainland and Hong Kong, respectively from the horizontal and vertical angle. Basing on generalizing, summarizing and integrating, author makes a comparative analysis, aiming to explore the research horizon, enrich the data and consummate the methods.First of all, after discussing the research background and significance, this paper introduces the theoretical perspectives in the middle class research history, defines the related concepts and thus determines the research frame.Secondly, this paper summarizes the contents and status of China mainland’s "middle class" in accordance with the different focus, including the standard for classification and scale, identity, consumption and taste, education and culture, political attitude and participation. Correspondingly, Hong Kong’s middle class research is stated by the time-leading longitudinal-type way, from immigrant society, affluent society, crisis society to the transferring society. There are two approaches corresponding with two areas.At last, this paper compares the generalized research results of China mainland and Hong Kong by placing "middle class" issue into the whole social structure. The similarities and difference are revealed by the comparison of focus, methods and perspectives. These three dimensions prove the meaning of comparative study in this paper.