Housing Choices of the Middle Class in Beijing and Shanghai

Yu-Ling Song discusses the intricate connection between the party-state, hukou, sense of place, identity, generation and housing choice among Shanghai and Beijing middle-class young professionals.

Yu-Ling Song, Associate Professor, Geography, National Chang-hua University of Education 

The research reveals the intricate connection between the party-state, hukou, sense of place, identity, generation and housing choice among Shanghai and Beijing middle-class young professionals. These factors are examined to understand the process of housing choice of the young professional middle class. Moreover, the concept of ‘social justice’ is introduced to critique the current discourse, which has tended to homogenize the middle class and stigmatize it inappropriately. 52 indepth interviews were carried out in the two cities in 2009-2011. The result shows that the middle class in Beijing and Shanghai can be grouped into five different types: “the moderate investment” “flexible investment”, “sectionalism distinction”, “pursuing dwelling” , and “adaptive”. Young professional middle class accumulates wealth in different ways although they are generally considered as the same social class. There is inequality within the middle class, however they are given the same social responsibility and bear the same stigma, particularly under the ‘social justice’ principle. The political correctness of moral criticism such as ‘hating corruption, but not hating rich’ (chou fuˇ bu chou fuˋ) also makes them uneasy even though they have professional jobs and make relatively high salary.

Yu-Ling Song is an Associate Professor of Geography at National Chang-hua University in Taiwan, as well as a visiting scholar in the Geography Department, University of Washington, for the 2013-2014 academic year. Her research interests are in housing and migrants in urban China. In recent years she has studied the displaced residents in Shanghai through the perspective of place attachment. She has also extended her research to the housing choice of the middle class in Beijing and Shanghai to explore the diversity and complexity of the process as Chinese middle class pursues wealth accumulation through housing.