Understanding Social Changes in China: The Contribution of the Chinese General Social Survey

Drawing on two decades of data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), this collection examines fundamental social transformations in contemporary China across gender, marriage, living arrangements, and subjective well-being from 2003 to 2021.

The contributions utilise longitudinal CGSS data to analyse key dimensions of social change including women's labour force participation patterns, evolving school-to-work transitions, changing residential independence amongst young adults, intermarriage trends across hukou boundaries, and the complex relationships between personal achievement, marriage, and happiness. Through rigorous quantitative analysis, the chapters reveal how gender ideologies, social attitudes, and subjective social status have shifted during China's rapid economic transformation. The studies employ sophisticated methodological approaches including age-period-cohort analysis and comparative frameworks to chart both continuity and change in Chinese social life, offering insights into social reproduction, status alignment, and the dynamics of happiness in a changing economic landscape.

This volume will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in Chinese studies, sociology, social policy, and comparative social research, as well as scholars working in gender studies, family sociology, and survey methodology. The collection serves as an essential resource for courses on contemporary Chinese society, social change, and quantitative social research methods. This book was originally published as a special issue of Chinese Sociological Review.

Xiaogang Wu is the Yufeng Global Professor of Social Science and Professor of Sociology at NYU Shanghai and New York University, USA, and the Founding Director of the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research (CASER) at NYU Shanghai, China. His research and teaching interests include Chinese society, social inequality and stratification, survey and quantitative methods, and urban sociology. He has served as Chief Editor of Chinese Sociological Review since 2011 and is a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS).

Weidong Wang is Professor of Practice in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Executive Director of the Social Science Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong, China. From 2012 to 2024, he served as Deputy Director of the National Survey Research Center at Renmin University of China, and a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), and the Principal Investigator (PI) of the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) and the Chinese Religious Life Survey (CRLS).

Jia Miao is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at NYU Shanghai, China. Her research examines how urban neighborhoods shape social cohesion, health inequality, productive aging, and subjective well-being in the Asian context. She is also interested in the social consequences of homeownership in large Chinese cities. Her work has appeared in Social Science & Medicine, Social Forces, and other leading journals.

Angran Li is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at NYU Shanghai, China, and an affiliated member of the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research (CASER). His research focuses on social stratification and inequality, the sociology of education, family, higher education, urban sociology, and quantitative methods. His work has been published in Social Forces, Sociology of Education, Social Science Research, Chinese Sociological Review, and other peer-reviewed journals.