Contemporary Social Issues
China’s rapid economic ascent has prompted significant change in Chinese society,
and many of the changes are positive, lifting millions out of poverty into a much bet-
ter life. However, the rapid economic development has created new societal difficul-
ties and compounded old ones. Economic development and urbanization have
resulted in serious environmental degradation. Ecological problems abound in the
lack of access to clean water, carbon emissions, desertification, and soil contamina-
tion. According to official reports, almost 60 percent of groundwater and 20 percent
of farmland is affected by pollution, and Beijing’s enervating air quality is a near con-
stant refrain in international media reports. All of these contribute to health pro-
blems.^59 Persistent, widespread official corruption continues to threaten economic
progress and social stability. China’s income inequality ranks among the highest in
the world and presents another formidable challenge for China’s leaders.^60
The problem with the greatest potential for transforming traditional Chinese cul-
tural norms is the changing location and structure of the population. Traditional rural
Chinese society is rapidly being altered by urbanization and the impact of the one-
child policy. In the 2000 census only 36 percent of the population was urban,^61 but
by 2014 the figure had risen to almost 54 percent, and the government goal is for
70 percent of the population to live in cities by 2020.^62 As greater numbers of people
leave the countryside, the traditional concept of the extended family (and attendant
values) will erode, just as has occurred in other industrialized societies.
Due to the culturally motivated desire for sons and availability of selective abortion,
China’s official one-child policy, instituted over thirty years ago, has both reduced the
number of newborns and produced a disproportionate number of males among the
younger generations. This has“forcefully altered the family and kin structure of hun-
dreds of millions of Chinese families.”^63 The many potential problems resulting from
this change are exacerbated by China’s falling birthrate and the increased graying of
the population. The birth ratio in 2011 was 117 males for every 100 females, and cur-
rent predictions are that by 2020, there will be an excess of 24 million bachelors. One
Chinese official indicated that the imbalance portended a range of social difficulties,
including“sex crimes, trafficking in women, and difficulty finding a spouse.”^64 The
declining birthrate, estimated at 1.5 babies per couple, undermines the Chinese tradi-
tion of children supporting their elderly parents. Moreover, a falling youth cohort in an
aging society carries major consequences for China’s economic growth and social
structure—that is, a shrinking labor force insufficient to underpin needed social support
systems.^65 The situation is further aggravated by a growing brain drain, with increasing
numbers of educated and/or affluent Chinese choosing to move abroad in search of
greater opportunity and an enhanced quality of life.^66
China’s economic ascendance has produced social improvement and given rise to
new societal challenges. But perhaps the most significant changes and those that por-
tend lasting change have occurred in the traditional social structure:
Attitudes toward the family have been revolutionized....The family used to be the state in
miniature, with the father-son bond mirroring the ruler-subject relationship. Now though,
the vertical relationship in the family is coming second to the horizontal conjugal relation-
ship between man and wife. Youth is triumphing over age in the cities; the individual is
becoming more important than the group....China has become a fount of modern, scien-
tific thinking and go-getting individualism.^67176 CHAPTER 5•Cultural History: Precursor to the Present and Future
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