China's Durable Inequality: Legacies of Revolution & Pitfalls of Reform

Professor Mark Selden speaks on China's social inequalities in the wake of revolution and reform.

Professor Selden offers a framework both for assessing structures of Chinese inequality in successive epochs of revolution and reform and for gauging the changing relationship between social movements and structures of inequality. Three key questions drive the analysis: What are the legacies of the Chinese Revolution for the pursuit of social equality? How has reform restructured patterns of inequality? What is the relationship between the social upheavals that took place during both periods and changing patterns of inequality?

Professor Selden’s talk builds on a framework laid out in his article (coauthored by China Kwan Lee) “China's Durable Inequality: Legacies of Revolution and Pitfalls of Reform,” in the electronic journal Japan Focus.