Book Reading in Urban China
The Uneven Distribution of Cultural Capital:
Book Reading in Urban China
1
Shaoguang Wang
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Deborah Davis
Yale University
Yanjie Bian
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
December 7, 2004
Book Reading in Urban China
The Uneven Distribution of Cultural Capital:
Book Reading in Urban China
Abstract
With Pierre Bourdieu and Richard A. Peterson as our points of departure, this
exploratory study examines to what extent cultural capital coincides with other
dimensions of social and regional inequality in urban China. Drawing on interviews
with 400 couples in four Chinese cities in 1998, the paper documents variations in
reading habit by occupational class, city of residence, gender, education, and age. Our
analysis shows that social class can to large extent explain differences in reading habit.
There are also significant regional variations within each occupational class. In
addition, we find that gender, education and age have their effects on people’s reading
habits.
Key words: Cultural capital, class, regional disparity, inequality, China
Word count: 7,918
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Book Reading in Urban China
Introduction
Beginning with Weber ([1922] 1978), there emerged theoretical
acknowledgment of the importance of cultural as well as economic dimensions in
forming power structures in society. By applying an economic metaphor, Bourdieu
calls usable cultural resources “cultural capital.” What matters here is not intrinsic
aesthetic value of cultural materials, but their “symbolic power.” In most societies,
cultural choices are vertically ranked so that some are viewed socially “high” while
others are socially “low.” Consequently distinction in cultural taste with respect to
such seemingly trivial things as clothing, leisure pastimes, music, reading, and so on
can serve as a device to signify social standing and to maintain, reinforce, and
reproduce already existing social structure (Bourdieu 1984, 1985).
Like economic capital, cultural capital is unequally distributed across social
space. It has been established by numerous empirical studies that the distribution of
cultural capital often correspond to other dimensions of human activities and of social
structure (DiMaggio, 1987, 1991, 1994; DiMaggio & Ostrower, 1990; Davis 1992;
Ganzeboom & Kraaykamp, 1992; Aschaffenburg, 1995; Katz-Gerro & Shavit. 1998;
Katz-Gerro, 1999). In this sense, any study of social inequality would be incomplete if
it fails to take into consideration the unequal distribution of cultural capital (Wilson,
1980; Sobel, 1983; Rojek, 1985; Zolberg, 1990; Lamont & Fournier, 1992; Ultee,
Batenburg & Ganzeboom, 1992).
In the China field, however, the study of social stratification has
predominantly focused on economic dimension. To date, differentiated cultural tastes
have been largely overlooked. As an initial effort to fill up the lacuna in contemporary
scholarship, this article reports on variation in reading habits tracked during a year
long study of consumption practices among 400 urban couples in 1998 in Shanghai,
Shenzhen, Tianjin and Wuhan. By doing so, we attempt to address two related
questions raised by Bourdieu in the context of urban China: how is cultural capital
differentially distributed across social space, and what do the observed patterns of
distribution tell us about the contemporary Chinese society?2
Section I begins with a discussion on how to define cultural capital, followed
by theoretical explorations of possible factors that may affect its distribution. Our
focus is placed on two test variables: individual attributes and geographic location.
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Book Reading in Urban China
Using differentiation of preferences in book reading as an indicator of cultural capital,
Section II operationalizes both dependent and independent variables for this study. To
obtain valid measurements of people’s book reading preferences, Section III first
applies the method of factor analysis to classify various book genres and literary
authors into a manageable number of cultural and literary categories. Then, it
investigates the extent to which differentiation in reading preferences are related to
other dimensions of social stratification and to geographic location. Section IV reports
the results of our regression analysis, which shows that social class can to large extent
explain differences in reading behavior. Party/government officials, professionals and
enterprise managers, for instance, possess significantly more cultural assets than
service workers, production workers, and self-employed. In addition, geographic
location proves to be a significantly differentiating factor. Contrary to conventional
wisdom, however, Shanghai residents appear to read less than their counterparts in the
other three cities. And, their literary tastes are no higher, either. In sum, individuals
from different social classes and different regions exhibit significantly different
patterns of cultural preferences. This observation sheds new light on the nature of the
emerging social structure in contemporary China.
Cultural Segmentation and Its Determinants
Two Conceptions of Cultural Capital
Our theoretical point of departure is Pierre Bourdieu’s analytic framework of
multiple capitals (Bourdieu, 1984). According to Bourdieu, the social structure of an
advanced capitalist society is not simply a hierarchy determined by income and
property ownership. Rather, it is a muddy “social space” in which multiple forms of
capital define hierarchically and horizontally distinctive social positions. Although
any asset, resource, or good that is valued in society can be a capital (Bourdieu, 1985),
in his analytic showcase, Distinction, Bourdieu (1984) primarily focuses on economic
and cultural capitals. In France, he shows, professionals and industrial/commercial
employers form distinct classes in social space not only because they possess
economic capitals, but also because they have distinct orientations of consumption,
distinct tastes for cultural products, and more generally, distinct lifestyles or habitus
(Bourdieu 1984: Figures 5 and 14).
4
Book Reading in Urban China
In Bourdieu’s model (1984), cultural capital is mainly embodied in people’s
cultural tastes. The culture of the highest class is viewed as the most distinguished
culture. Dominant classes (or fractions of them) can use their distinct cultural tastes as
both an indicator of their social status and as an instrument to maintain their
advantage in social, economic, and cultural arenas. Cultural tastes here operate as an
exclusionary device for distinguishing among social groups and a means for
facilitating class cohesion (or elite solidarity).
Richard A. Peterson (Peterson and Simkus 1992; Peterson 1992; Peterson &
Kern 1996), however, presents a different model of cultural capital. According to him,
although higher-status people are more likely to consume highbrow culture than are
lower status people, they do not limit their tastes to the highbrow. Instead, they
indulge more in many sorts of culture, not just the most elite forms. Equipped with
knowledge about wide-range of cultural genres, those people can navigate
successfully in many settings, including, for instance, making a better impression in
job interviews, in social relations on the job, or in building up social networks that can
help in getting jobs or doing jobs (DiMaggio, & Mohr, 1985; DiMaggio, Evans, &
Bryson. 1996). In Peterson’s terms, high status people are not cultural “snobs” but
cultural “omnivores.” At the same time, Peterson labels those in the lowest
occupational groups as “univores,” because they tend to have little contact with or
knowledge of spheres beyond their class, locality, race, ethnicity, and religion. What
distinguish “omnivores” from “univores” are not distinctive tastes but familiarity with
various cultural genres (Erickson 1996).
Thus, cultural capital may exist in two forms: distinct tastes and cultural
repertoire. By generating either “a hierarchy of tastes” or “a hierarchy of knowledge”
(Erickson, 1996: 219), cultural capital can function both as a practical identifier of
social boundaries and a theoretical construct of class distinction.
The Importance of Book Reading
In this exploratory study, we focus on only one cultural activity—book reading
in leisure time. Individual reading tastes are often thought so idiosyncratic as to
present any perceptible social patterns. For several reasons, however, we believe that
reading habits is an ideal metric for gauging differentiated cultural patterns among the
population.
5
Book Reading in Urban China
First, while highbrow cultural activities are often accessible only to a selected
few, books are widely available in stores and libraries. Indeed, reading was found to
be one of the most popular leisure activities among our respondents in all four cities,
second only to watching television. Investigating this type of cultural activity thus
may produce high response rates with little bias. Second, book reading is done away
from the workplace. While people’s behaviors at work are largely dictated by their
positions, their behaviors during leisure time are of their free choices, which can
better reflect their true preferences. Third, reading is an individualized activity, in
which personal choices and preferences may prevail over shared decisions that
characterize television watching among family members. Fourth, reading allows
substantial differentiation of cultural tastes. Books differ in many ways, with some
more demanding than others. Yet, people with very different backgrounds can always
find suitable reading material for themselves. The types of books a person read can
serve as a good behavioral indicator of his/her cultural preferences in general. Finally
and most importantly, preferences for certain types of books and familiarity with
specific authors have become widely accepted as indicators in comparison of cultural
diversity and societal cleavages (Bourdieu, 1984; Erickson, 1996; Kraaykamp &
Dijkstrab, 1999; Kraaykamp & Nieuwbeerta. 2000; Van Rees, Vermunt & Verboord
1999; Stokmans 1999; Tepper, 2000).3
For these reasons, a study of reading habits not only allows insights into the
cultural dimension of social inequality in contemporary China but also puts our data
directly into dialogue with a larger, comparative literature on cultural preferences and
social class.4
Possible Determinants of Cultural Segmentation
Given the importance of cultural capital in creating identity, fabricating
solidarity, practicing exclusion, and reproducing existing social structure (Bourdieu
1984; Erickson, 1991; Lamont 1992), it is interesting to investigate what are the key
determinants of cultural differences. Inspired by researches done elsewhere, this study
proposes a multi-causal explanation of cultural segmentation, focusing on the role of
social class and regional subculture.
Class
6
Book Reading in Urban China
A hundred years ago, Veblen ([1899] 1953) already noted that cultural taste and
preference were dependent on the social position of an individual in society. Later
sociological researchers also emphasize that cultural orientations are shaped in many
ways by social class (Gans, 1974; DiMaggio & Useem, 1978; DiMaggio, 1982; Hall,
1992; Halle, 1993; Milner, 1999). Giddens’s theory of class structuration (1973), for
instance, suggests that groups with roughly similar economic positions tend to have
distinctive experiences in other areas of social life. Thus, economic relationships may
become translated into “non-economic” social structures and people’s cultural
orientations (Giddens 1973: 105). Bourdieu also views culture as constitutive of class
position, because a class may face conditions of existence and have experience of life
different from other classes’. No matter how diverse such conditions and experiences
may be at the individual level, they form what Bourdieu calls the “class habitus,” or a
“system of durable, transposable dispositions” (partially) common to the members of
a particular class (Bourdieu 1977: 72). Thus class is expected to be the main
determinant of cultural preferences (Breen & Rottman 1995; Scott 1996).
Bourdieu’s critics question whether there exists a straightforward relation
between social position and cultural taste. Rather than viewing class and taste nearly
isomorphic, a number of North American studies have found that cultural tastes may
cut across class boundaries (Lamont 1992; Peterson, 1992; Peterson & Simkus 1992).
Peterson’s analyses of patterns of cultural choice, for instance, find that high status
people in the United States do not form an exclusive taste public. However, by
distinguishing omnivores from univores, Peterson actually returns to a class-based
approach, only to replace Bourdieu’s highbrow-lowbrow divide between classes with
an omnivore-to-univore one. To the extent that higher-class people are normally
familiar with more cultural genres than lower class people, culture is still related to
class.
Regional Subculture
Whereas class is the variable most often used in the sociological literature to
explain cultural differences among the population, there is reason to believe that such
differences can also be explained, at least in part, by regional subcultures.(DiMaggio
& Peterson, 1975; Gastil, 1975). In China, just as in any other large countries,
common cultural patterns are often perceptible within a given region and such regionspecific patterns may work as a means of distinguishing this region from others, thus
7
Book Reading in Urban China
giving its residents a sense of cultural identity. Wherever regional cultural differences
are not attributable to the obvious regional variation in social structure, demographic
composition, education, or standard of living, we may call them “subcultures.” Such
cultural dispositions are likely to be transmittable from one generation to next within
given regions through the normal channels of socialization independent of structural
influences (Hebdige, 1979; Marsden et al. 1982; Marsden & Reed 1983; Lamont,
Schmalzbauer, Waller & Weber, 1996).
In studies of contemporary China, there has been little explicit comparison of
cultural taste/knowledge among several metropolitan areas. One of the goals of our
work therefore is to use individual reading preferences to explore the influence of
people’s geographic location on their cultural consumption.5 In China, Shanghai has
long been presumed to be China’s culturally most sophisticated city. Based on history,
the level of socioeconomic development, the accessibility of cultural facilities (see
Table 1), and the degree of openness to cultures outside China, we expect that
residents of Shanghai to be culturally advantaged over their counterparts in the other
three cities.
[Table 1 about here]
The distribution of cultural interests and abilities may also be influenced by
gender, education, and age. The main purpose of our paper is to examine to what
extent cultural differences can be predicted by class and regional subculture. In what
follows, we will assess the relative importance of each of the two types of factors
while controlling for other theoretically significant demographic variables.
Data and Measurements
Data
The data used in this essay were collected during a year long interview project
that the authors conducted in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, and Wuhan in 1998 and
1999. A total of 400 households were chosen by random selection from household
registries that listed the occupations of the household heads. Each household was
visited four times at approximately 3-month intervals between January 1998 and
January 1999. In addition to the home interviews where spouses were interviewed
8
Book Reading in Urban China
separately for between 60 and 90 minutes, each husband or wife was asked to
complete two daily logs of social interactions: the first during the spring festival
(Chinese New Year) of 1998 and the second in May 1998.
Because we were especially concerned with lifestyle distinctions among
different white-collar occupational groups, the initial sample of 100 households in
each city included 60 households headed by men who held management or
professional positions. In each city, we selected 20 households headed by managers
above section level in government or party agencies, 20 households headed by
managers above section chief in industrial or commercial enterprises, 20 households
headed by professionals in state agencies or enterprises, 20 households headed by
industrial or service workers in state or collective enterprises, and 20 households by
private entrepreneurs. However, because the rapid growth of the non-state sector over
the decade of the 1990s created higher levels of job mobility than household registries
could capture, the occupational distribution resulted from the survey was not the same
as we had originally planned.
The goal of this intensive and extensive survey was not to create a
representative sample of all urban households, but rather to collect a detailed portrait
of how households headed by the emerging political and managerial elite defined their
lifestyle and social lives in comparison to their blue-collar neighbors and the selfemployed.
In any event, the dataset obviously leaves much to be desired. First, it covers
only four major metropolises, thus neglecting small and medium cities altogether.
Second, with a total of 800 respondents, the sample size is quite small. Third, since
the 800 respondents consist of 400 married couples, dependency of partners is
inevitable. Finally, the sample substantially over-represents elite. Due to these
drawbacks, whatever conclusions this study may draw about urban China, they should
be seen as tentative rather than as conclusive.
Indicators of Cultural Knowledge and Taste
The main purpose of our survey was to provide a “social cartography” of
everything that counts as “culture” in broad sense, including respondents’ ownership
of durable household items, eating habits, friendships, and participation in 40 different
leisure activities. In particular, the survey included a module of questions designed to
9
Book Reading in Urban China
measure respondents’ reading habits: the choices and manifested preferences of their
reading activities, which are used here to serve as indicators of cultural capital.
Reading knowledge and taste
To gauge respondents’ cultural knowledge and taste, we asked them how often
they read books among 22 genres. Their answers were scored on a four point scale
ranging from “never” (0), “rarely” (1), “sometime” (2) to “often” (3). The distribution
of book genre preferences among residents in the four cities is presented in Table 1.
As the mean scores reveal, there is a wide range of engagement. Most genres attract
only a small readership and only two have score above 1.40, which means that more
than half of respondents saying they read books of a particular type sometimes or
often. The most popular genres include professional books, educational books, and
books on current affairs, while the least popular choices include science fiction and
religious books.
A respondent’s scope of cultural knowledge is measured by counting the
number of book genres s/he has read, while her/his cultural taste is measured by a
method described in the next section.
Literary knowledge and taste
To further assess respondents’ literary knowledge and taste, we asked them for
their opinion of 20 well-known classical and contemporary literary authors. The scale
of literary author preferences ranged from "never heard of” (0), “know name but
haven’t read” (1), “read but don’t like” (2), “read but no opinion” (3), to "like it very
much" (4). Table 2 summarizes the results. Among the most liked authors are Cao
Xueqin, Lu Xun, and Su Dongpo. The least favored author is Wang Xiaobo, followed
by Su Tong and Wang Anyi.
A respondent’s scope of literary knowledge is measured by counting the number
of authors read, while her/his literary taste is measured again by a method discussed
in the next section.
In all the cities, questions were asked in the same fashion. This four-city design
gives us a better way to test the tenability of our explanatory mechanisms than does a
single-city design. The regional differences in reading habit are exhibited in Tables 2
and 3. Visible differences in mean score between the four cities are present for book
genre preferences as well as literary author preferences. For the most part, these
10
Book Reading in Urban China
differences show Shanghai residents to be less likely participating in book reading
than others. As Table 2 reveals, Shanghai’s scores for all book genres are lower than
the four city averages. As a matter of fact, the Shanghai residents’ readership is
ranked the lowest for 19 of the 22 book genres among the four cities. For literary
authors, Shanghai residents apparently favor Wang Anyi, a local writer.6 Otherwise,
they do not read as much as do residents in the other three cities.
[Tables 2 and 3 about here]
There are many possible explanations for the city differences found in Tables 2
and 3. One of them is the differential demographic composition of respondents in the
four cities. If significant differences between Shanghai and the other three cities
remain after taking account of this possibility, however, we then have little alternative
but to conclude that, as far as book reading is concerned, Shanghai residents possess
less cultural capital than residents in the other three cities. We will use the technique
of multiple regression analysis to remove variations in reading habit due to factors
other than region of residence in the next section.
Explanatory Variables
Class: Inspired by Wright’s (1985) three major class dimensions: control of
property, control of organizations, and control of skill, we reassign respondents to
eight class categories based upon their own job descriptions. Wright’s class approach
is adopted here because it emphasizes location in structures of domination and
exploitation, which, in our judgment, is applicable to the post-reform China. The eight
categories include two for control of property (private owner and self-employed) and
two for control of organizations (enterprise managers and government/party officials).
Since people who control some kinds of skill form a large and varied part of the
workforce, we use four categories for this dimension (including professionals, whitecollar administrative staff, blue-collar production workers, and service workers).
11
Book Reading in Urban China
1) Service workers: occupants of these jobs are unskilled or semi-skilled
employees who provide direct services, including retail clerks, repairpersons,
cooks, janitors, and drivers.
2) Production workers: occupants of these jobs are blue-collar manual laborers
who are directly involved in production.
3) Self-employed: occupants of these jobs are self-employed service or
production workers who do not employ others and have few capital assets. In
most Chinese surveys they are described as getihu (个体户).
4) Private owners: occupants of these jobs are also self-employed but they
employ others and also own substantial capital assets.
5) Administrative staff: occupants of these jobs are office staffs who perform
routine white-collar tasks.
6) Professionals: occupants of these jobs have specialized secondary or postsecondary education and perform non-routine white collar jobs but do not
have supervisory positions above section chief.
7) Enterprise Managers: occupants of these jobs hold supervisory positions
above section chief in an industrial or other profit making enterprises.
8) Government or Party Officials: occupants of these jobs hold supervisory
positions above section chief in government or party agencies.
In the regression analysis reported in the next section, the service worker is the
omitted/reference category.
City dummies: To capture some of the regional variations of contemporary
China, our survey selected two cities that by 1998 had leapt ahead in terms of income
and living standards—Shenzhen, a special economic zone adjacent to Hong Kong and
Shanghai at the mouth of the Yangtze river—and two that were closer to the national
average—Tianjin in North China and Wuhan in the Central-south. Wuhan is the
omitted/reference city.
Gender: Gender differences in cultural consumption have been noted in
numerous empirical studies (Netz 1996; Bihagen & Katz-Gerro 2000; Tepper 2000).
Whereas some researches suggest that women participate less in highbrow culture
(Green et al. 1990; Samuel 1996), others come to the exactly the opposite conclusion
that women are inclined to engage more in highbrow culture (DiMaggio 1982; Bryson
12
Book Reading in Urban China
1996). Either way, we should be mindful of gender salience in shaping cultural
consumption patterns independently of other socio-economic factors (Lamont &
Lareau 1988; Collins 1992; Shaw 1994; Belloni 1996). This makes it necessary to
include gender as an explanatory variable. To tap gender differences, we compare
men to the reference category of women.
Education: Education has been universally seen as one of the main determinants
of cultural differences. Education not only enables people to accumulate cultural
knowledge but also increases their competence of aesthetic appreciation. Therefore
individuals with higher levels of education are expected to engage more in high
cultural activities and retain larger cultural repertoire than others (Gans 1974).
Empirical studies have indeed shown that education is a very strong predictor of
people’s cultural preferences (Bennett, Emmison & Frow 1999). Education here is
measured by years of schooling.
Age: There is little doubt that age may have certain effects on people’s
possession of cultural assets. On the one hand, people may increase the scope of their
knowledge with regard to cultural genres as they become older (an age effect). On the
other hand, each generation may have its distinctive cultural preferences (a cohort
effect), which is one of the reasons we often observe so-called “generation gaps.” The
two types of effects are often intertwined so that it is not easy to make prediction
about them. In this study, age is measured continuously (in years).
Findings
In this section, we first describe the construction of the dependent variables—taste
clusters and the cultural contents they represent and then move on to analyze how
differences in cultural knowledge and taste (measured by book genre preferences) and
literary knowledge and taste (measured by literary author preference) are related to
class and locality net of the effects of gender, education, and age.
Reading Taste Clusters
Our survey included questions regarding 22 book genres and 20 literary authors.
In order to identify the patterns of reading habit, we have to reduce this bewildering
variety of reading activities to a more manageable number of taste clusters (Marsden
& Swingle 1994). For this purpose, we carry out separate factor analyses with
13
Book Reading in Urban China
Oblimin rotation of respondents’ book genre preferences and literary author
preferences.7
In Table 4 we see that book genre preferences produce four distinct factors. The
cumulative explained variance of the factors is relatively high, 58.7 percent; all of the
four factors have an eigen-value that is higher than one. The first factor is composed
of items that are either aesthetically coded (e.g. literature, poetry and the like) or have
a predominantly factual or documentary orientation (e.g. history books, biographies).
These genres are supposedly associated with high-culture. Four types of popular
fictions make up the second factor. The third factor mainly consists of items that may
interest business executives. The final factor is composed of items related to family
life, such as “children’s education” and “everyday life knowledge.”
[Table 4 about here]
Similarly, our attempt to discern underlying relations between respondents’
literary author preferences produce four factors that explain 55.4 percent of the total
variance of the items (Table 5). The first factor includes such authors of contemporary
novels as Wang Anyi, Su Tong, and Wang Xiaobo. Although Qian Zhongshu first
published his famous novel Besieged City in the 1940s, his name did not become
known to most of Chinese until the early 1980s. Thus, it is not surprising that he is
included in this category. It is widely accepted that the preference for contemporary
literary authors marks a high-cultural taste. The second factor is composed of authors
whose works were strongly recommended by the government in the 1950s through the
1980s. Some of their works were even included in middle school and high school
textbooks. The third factor covers only two female authors of popular romance
fictions from Taiwan, namely, Qiong Yao and San Mao. The last factor consists of
authors whose works we label “pink classics.” Except Jin Yong, those authors’ works
were widely circulated in the 1950s-1980s, but regarded not as “revolutionary” as
those covered by the second factor. Two authors, namely, Feng Jicai and Zhang
Ailing, do not load high on any single factor. Perhaps, their works can fit into more
than one category.
[Table 5 about here]
14
Book Reading in Urban China
A common practice in the study of cultural taste is to classify certain items as
highbrow, middlebrow, or lowbrow subjectively (Levine, 1988; Bourdieu, 1990;
Rubin, 1992). Our approach is different. Rather than relying upon our subjective
judgment, we create a metric of reading tastes that emerge from respondents own
preferences for specific genres and specific authors. This method allows us to go
beyond the common highbrow/lowbrow distinction.
Regression Analysis
Having reduced the 42 separate reading preferences to eight types of taste
clusters, we are now in a position to answer the question with regard to the
relationships among reading tastes, class, and locality net of intervening variables. We
address this question by using multiple regression analysis of our dependent variables
on all the independent variables. Table 6 presents the results from five multivariate
regression models regarding respondents’ knowledge and taste for various types of
book genres, while Table 7 reports the results of five regression models regarding
their knowledge and taste for specific literary authors. The coefficients reported in
those two tables are standardized ones (β) and may be interpreted as showing the net
contribution or “effect” of each of the independent variables listed at the left holding
constant all other factors.
The Determinants of Cultural Knowledge and Taste (Table 6)
Like Bourdieu and Peterson, we find a strong class effect on reading habits
whether we examine genre knowledge or genre taste. Those in authority at workplace
(party/government officials and enterprise managers) and with expert skills
(professionals) not only read highbrow books (Column 2) more often but also read
significantly more widely across genres than other groups (Column 1). With regard to
family-related books (Column 3), management-related books (Column 4), and
popular fictions (Column 5), class distinction seems less consistent and weaker.
Professionals, administrative staff, and production workers read more family-related
books than others do, while enterprise managers are particularly interested in reading
management-related books. In the case of fictions, class has almost no effect. Only
administrative staff read significantly more. The most interesting finding of Table 6
is that, as far as book genre knowledge and taste are concerned, two newly emerged
classes who own capital assets (private business owners and self-employed) closely
15
Book Reading in Urban China
resemble the working class (production workers and service workers) rather than
classes who either control organizational assets or possess skill or credential assets.
This is probably where China differs from most advanced capitalist societies.
[Table 6 about here]
Across all indicators of breadth of reading and book genre preference except for
fictions, Shanghai residents consistently score lower than their counterparts in the
other cities and the effect (β) of Shanghai residence is often stronger than that of class,
gender, or age (Columns 1-4). Since these coefficients indicate net effects holding all
other attributes constant, the pattern is particularly noteworthy.
In terms of genre knowledge (Column 1) men score higher than women and the
younger score higher than the elder, even after we control for education and
occupation. However, the effect is not consistent in terms of genre taste. For highbrow
book genre (Column 2), age difference is insignificant and men do better than women.
Apparently, growing older does not necessarily increase people’s cultural competence
here. But the young and women seem to be more interested in family-related books
than do men and the elder. Conversely, men are more active in reading managementrelated books. As for fictions, though, there is no gender difference. Young people are
most likely to read this genre.
Education does make a difference. Those who receive more education tend to
read more genres of books than those who do not. Education is also a strong
determinant of reading tastes. It has a very strong positive association with reading
highbrow and family-related books, as is indicated by its large standardized
coefficients.
The Determinants of Literary Knowledge and Taste (Table 7)
In terms of the scope of literary knowledge, political and cultural elites vastly
excel all other occupational classes. However, economic elites are internally split.
While enterprise managers somewhat resemble officials and professionals, private
business owners act more like workers, and self-employed appears to be a social
group that ranks the lowest in terms of literary knowledge (Column 1).
As for literary taste, compared to working classes, party/government officials
and professionals are more inclined to read contemporary novels and pink classics but
16
Book Reading in Urban China
not red classics and affective romance fictions. Enterprise managers consume more
contemporary novels, but not anything else. Private business owners are quite peculiar
for they distinguish themselves from other classes by reading more romance fictions
(Columns 2-5).
[Table 7 about here]
As expected, education makes a big difference in literature appreciation. The
higher one’s education level is, the more authors s/he reads. Those with high
education are truly “omnivores,” loving reading not only contemporary novels but
also “red” and “pink” classics. Only low cultural romance fictions cannot arouse their
enthusiasm.
While differences in occupation class and education produce the most consistent
effects on the engagement with a variety of literary works, gender, age, and locale
produce varied and sometimes contradictory outcomes. For example, age overall has
no impact on the number of authors read, but the older respondents read significantly
more red classics, while the young read more romantic fiction. Although our data
don’t allow us to make a strong conclusion, we hypothesize that the distinctive
reading habits of older respondents may reflect a cohort difference attributable to the
distinctive content of their primary and secondary school curriculum prior to the
Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Also of note is the absence of any gender difference
in overall number of authors read, but a clear preference for pink classics among men,
and for romantic fiction among women.
Similar to the results on engagement with book genres, we find that Shanghai
residents stand out from their counterparts in the other three cities as being less
engaged in and less knowledgeable about literary readings. However, there is
variation across genres that further substantiate our argument about the significance of
regional variation. While the residents of Shanghai and Shenzhen overall score lower
on the number of literary authors read and much lower when it comes to reading “red
classics”, Shenzhen residents do not score lower on reading contemporary novels and
romance fictions, and Shanghai resident do not score lower on reading pink classics
and romance fictions. In contrast, Tianjin residents display a particularly strong
distaste for “contemporary novels” and “pink classics.”
17
Book Reading in Urban China
Summary
Cultural capital can be conceptualized as distinct cultural taste or cultural
repertoire. Hence, cultural inequality may manifest itself in the form of either “a
hierarchy of tastes” or “a hierarchy of knowledge” (Erickson 1996: 219). By
examining social and regional differentiations in reading practices, this article applies
a multi-causal model to assess the determinants of cultural inequality in urban China.
Two broad conclusions can be drawn from the empirical findings reported in this
study. First, class proves to be the most consistently differentiating factor, and second,
geography often leaves an equally significant mark.
A cultural divide between elite classes and working classes is quite visible
whether we look at reading habit in general or literary reading in particular. Overall,
those in managerial and professional occupations are most likely to read books that
are intellectually challenging and books with literary prestige. At the same time, they
are also more likely to have knowledge about a wide range of book genres and literary
authors. By contrast, those in blue-collar jobs are uniformly less active in book
reading regardless of genres. Among all classes, the self-employed appear to be
ranked the lowest in terms of cultural capital possession. People in this class engage
themselves in book reading even less than production workers and service workers.
This probably has to do with the fact that most self-employed were either unable to
obtain jobs in the formal economic sector or have been laid off from the formal sector.
Private business owners also constitute a peculiar case. They own more economic
capital than people in any other classes. Yet, unlike other elites, they seem to have
possessed little cultural capital. As far as book reading is concerned, they resemble
working classes much more than elite classes. Perhaps, this newly emerging capitalist
class is still in the process of formation. It would be interesting to reexamine if its
cultural repertoires and profiles will change ten or twenty years from now.
An interesting exception to the above observation is in the area of popular
fiction books, a genre that the Chinese culture generally holds in low esteem. Here we
find surprising homogeneity across nearly all occupational classes, transcending even
the fundamental gap between elite classes on the one hand and self-employed and
other manual laborers on the other. Instead, when one looks at preference for the
fiction books, the main divide is by age, a finding closely in keeping with other
studies of mass consumption that show cohort trumping class (Davis 2000).
18
Book Reading in Urban China
Our analyses give rise to a general conclusion that the Chinese society is
differentiated not only along the economic line but also along the cultural line.
Individuals from different social classes have significantly diverse patterns of cultural
consumption. Or speaking in the vocabulary of European and North American social
science, cultural capital is unequally distributed among occupational classes, which,
in turn, may help partially define and crystallize boundaries between social classes.
To the extent that cultural capital in forms of diversified cultural knowledge or ability
to appreciate high cultural products gives one advantages to engage in all kinds of
socioeconomic activities, whoever possesses more cultural capital in China may be
more capable to adapt to this hybrid, fast changing society.
Yet, while class membership matters, it is not the only factor to have effects on
cultural preferences. A regional pattern of culture capital distribution is also quite
evident, albeit the regional profiles of readership are not what we would expect.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, we find Shanghai residents to be the least avid
readers. Compared to their counterparts in the other cities, they are distinguished by a
lower level of readership in all book genres except popular fiction books. Their
literary knowledge and tastes are also generally low. We thus are led to the conclusion
that, at least as far as book reading is concerned, residents in Shanghai possess less
rather than more cultural capital than people living elsewhere.
How do we explain this puzzling discovery? Some may suspect that our
respondents in Shanghai must have understood survey questions differently or been
more willing to admit being ignorant than those living in the other cities. This is
possible but unlikely. For one thing, the rate of “never heard of” responses to our
questions about literary authors are not the lowest among Shanghai residents. Another
possibility is that Shanghai people have less leisure time than residents in the other
cities. Even if it were true, the time constraint could, at best, account for the city
differences in the scope of cultural and literary knowledge, but it could hardly explain
away the city differences in cultural and literary taste. We may also attribute the
observed peculiarities of Shanghai to the differentiated availability of cultural
repertoires across the cities. Shanghai people might have been busy in taking part in
other forms of leisure activities so that they read fewer types of books and enjoy less
from reading literary works. When we asked our respondents how many movies they
had seen in the past year, how many sports events, city tours, exhibitions, concerts
and plays they had attended, Shanghai respondents as a group indeed scored higher
19
Book Reading in Urban China
than the four city average in three of the five areas listed in Table 8. However, with
the exception of art exhibits, they scored lower than Shenzhen respondents who
consistently read more books and knew more about literature. Perhaps there are two
types of culture: displayable and non-displayable. It is possible that Shanghai people
appear to be high culture along the displayable dimension, but performs poorly in
non-displayable areas such as book reading. But, again, this explanation cannot give
an explanation for the differences in literary taste. Finally, we may hypothesize that
Shanghai people are less involved in reading because they live in a more atomized
and commercial culture. We are not sure we want to go that far, but all the pieces do
seem to lead in that direction.
Although we cannot come to a definitive explanation, the data clearly
demonstrate that, regardless of variation by class, education, gender and age, there
remains significant cultural differentiation along city lines. Conceivably, such
regional differences represent what scholars call “subcultures.” Thus what the reading
habits of our respondents reveal is that even as members of China’s managerial,
professional, and entrepreneurial elites becomes increasingly engaged with global
markets and less controlled by “homogenizing” state policies, they may also become
as differentiated by the values and tastes of their regional location as by their class
positions.
In sum, if inequality is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, then in studying social
differentiation, it is as important to analyze the distribution of such non-monetary
assets as cultural capital as to examine income and wealth distribution. However, to
date the English language literature on social stratification and regional disparity in
China contains almost no research on the cultural dimension. We hope that our
findings point to a new avenue of inquiry in the empirical study of inequality.
20
Book Reading in Urban China
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25
Book Reading in Urban China
Table 1:
Cultural Facilities in the Four Cities
Tianjin
Shanghai
Shenzhen
Wuhan
Population
(million)
9.19
13.34
5.04
7.68
Art
Performance
Troupes
15
25
5
16
Art
Performance
Places
32
36
6
13
Cultural
Centers
18
46
7
19
Public
Libraries
31
32
10
17
Museums
15
23
16
16
Source: Department of Finance, Ministry of Culture, Zhongguo wenhua wenwu tongji nianjian, 2003
[China Statistical Yearbook on Culture and Cultural Relic, 2003], Beijing: Beijing Library Press, 2004.
26
Book Reading in Urban China
Table 2
How often do you read the following kinds of books?
(Mean Score)
Book Genre
Masterpieces in Chinese & Foreign
Literature (zhongwai wenxue
mingzhu)
Reportage （jishi wenxue）
Biography （renwu zhuanji）
Romance Novels （yanqing
xiaoshuo）
Martial Arts （wuxia xiaoshuo）
Detective Story （zhengtan
xiaoshuo）
Science Fiction （kehuan
xiaoshuo）
Philosophy （zhexue/xueshu
zhuzuo）
Religious （zongjiao duwu）
History/Geography （lishi/dili）
Sports and Games （tiyu/youxi）
Management （jingying guanli）
Everyday Life （shiyong shenghuo
zhishi）
Professional （zhuanye jishu
jineng）
Educational Materials
（jiaocai/fudaoshu）
Poetry & Prose （shige/shanwen）
Self Cultivation（rensheng
xiuyang）
Current Events （shishi
zhengzhi）
On the Reforms （youguan gaige
de shu）
Foreign Relations （zhongwai
guanxi de shu）
Stocks/Bonds （youguan gupiao de
shu）
Children’s Education （youguan
zinu jiaoyu de shu）
Overall
1.07
Shanghai
1.01
Tianjin
1.02
Wuhan
1.18
Shenzhen
1.11
1.23
1.24
.80
.93
1.01
.77
1.23
1.12
.77
1.40
1.45
.76
1.50
1.51
1.00
.66
.76
.61
.53
.59
.81
.74
.87
.76
.88
.52
.32
.48
.67
.69
.70
.46
.71
.85
.90
.31
.75
.64
.87
1.32
.19
.38
.41
.57
.80
.33
.85
.75
.79
1.32
.34
.89
.68
1.10
1.63
.45
.99
.81
1.21
1.76
1.42
1.22
1.33
1.63
1.59
1.11
.80
1.10
1.37
1.22
.71
.97
.50
.66
.64
1.02
.85
1.08
.98
1.25
1.42
.97
1.43
1.76
1.68
1.12
.67
1.10
1.50
1.31
.74
.46
.66
1.03
.93
.58
.44
.33
.63
1.26
1.30
.74
1.47
1.58
1.53
27
Book Reading in Urban China
Table 3:
Did you enjoy reading the following authors?
(Mean Score)
Ba Jin
Lu Xun
Yang Mo
Qian Zhongshu
Wang Anyi
Jia Pingwa
Wang Shuo
Su Tong
Wang Xiaobo
Jin Yong
Feng Jicai
Qiong Yao
Maxim Gorky
Guy de Maupassant
Mark Twain
Cao Xueqin
Su Dongpo
Liang Xiaosheng
San Mao
Zhang Ailing
Overall
2.59
2.79
2.04
1.73
1.43
1.48
1.80
1.38
1.10
2.28
1.68
2.49
2.55
1.77
1.61
2.99
2.66
1.49
2.28
1.89
Shanghai
2.32
2.29
1.78
1.55
1.74
1.32
1.63
1.55
1.09
2.51
1.47
2.46
2.26
2.02
1.69
2.64
2.54
1.60
2.08
2.10
28
Tianjin
2.85
3.05
2.13
1.56
1.07
1.22
1.83
1.02
.79
1.98
2.26
2.78
2.87
1.72
1.42
3.24
2.69
1.31
2.20
1.52
Wuhan
2.78
3.08
2.30
1.97
1.50
1.81
2.04
1.49
1.26
2.30
1.43
2.30
2.70
1.82
1.81
3.31
2.91
1.57
2.48
1.93
Shenzhen
2.20
2.71
1.89
1.99
1.43
1.71
1.61
1.55
1.47
2.41
1.36
2.35
2.20
1.29
1.47
2.59
2.36
1.46
2.45
2.16
Book Reading in Urban China
Table 4:
Rotated Factor Loadings for Book Genres
Masterpieces in Chinese & Foreign Literature
Reportage
Biography
Romance
Martial Arts Fiction
Detective Story
Science Fiction
Philosophy
Religious
History/Geography
Sports and Games
Management
Everyday Life
Professional Skills
Educational Materials
Poetry
Self Cultivation
Current Events
On the Reforms
Foreign Relations
Stocks/Bonds
Children's Education
Eigenvalue
Cumulative % Explained Variance

Highbrow
0.661
0.698
0.617
-0.048
-0.078
0.151
0.344
0.617
0.718
0.596
0.305
0.272
0.190
0.187
0.113
0.501
0.606
0.577
0.529
0.512
-0.227
0.057
Fiction
0.113
0.013
0.030
0.596
0.840
0.771
0.526
-0.025
0.149
0.085
0.251
-0.027
0.016
-0.141
0.044
0.010
0.000
-0.053
-0.046
0.034
0.144
0.176
Managementrelated
-0.204
-0.107
-0.009
-0.339
0.108
0.115
0.140
0.138
-0.064
0.181
0.430
0.568
0.219
0.280
0.045
-0.060
-0.016
0.346
0.440
0.415
0.693
0.122
Familyrelated
0.213
0.231
0.242
0.426
-0.105
0.028
-0.008
0.086
-0.307
0.039
-0.030
0.127
0.527
0.520
0.710
0.387
0.347
0.163
0.092
0.110
0.131
0.633
8.870
40.318
1.746
48.255
1.251
53.941
1.052
58.721
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis

Rotation Method: Oblimin with Kaiser Normalization
29
Book Reading in Urban China
Table 5:
Rotated Factor Loadings for Literary Authors
Ba Jin
Lu Xun
Yang Mo
Qian Zhongshu
Wang Anyi
Jia Pingwa
Wang Shuo
Su Tong
Wang Xiaobo
Jin Yong
Feng Jicai
Qiong Yao
Maxim Gorky
Guy de Maupassant
Mark Twain
Cao Xueqin
Su Dongpo
Liang Xiaosheng
San Mao
Zhang Ailing
Eigenvalue
Cumulative % Explained Variance

Contemporary
Novels
0.094
-0.019
0.351
0.547
0.618
0.550
0.557
0.867
0.855
-0.001
0.300
-0.041
-0.113
0.091
0.121
-0.012
-0.005
0.600
0.163
0.359
Red Classics
0.810
0.755
0.588
0.208
0.054
0.012
0.208
-0.046
-0.064
-0.063
0.225
0.236
0.697
0.238
0.085
0.591
0.399
0.017
0.028
-0.138
Romance
0.022
0.068
-0.158
-0.132
-0.009
-0.056
-0.135
0.099
0.150
0.145
-0.049
0.710
0.022
-0.205
-0.083
0.264
0.186
-0.077
0.616
0.389
Pink Classics
0.158
0.057
-0.019
-0.157
-0.098
-0.309
-0.174
0.114
0.224
-0.570
-0.244
0.142
-0.203
-0.638
-0.723
-0.144
-0.448
-0.229
-0.287
-0.381
6.841
34.203
1.942
43.911
1.232
50.072
1.056
55.352
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis

Rotation Method: Oblimin with Kaiser Normalization
30
Book Reading in Urban China
Table 6:
Effects of Predictors on Book Genre Preference
(Standardized Coefficients--Beta)
Dependent Variables
And Models Predictor
Variables
Number of
Book Genres
Read
Personal characteristics
Gender (Women = 0)
Education
Age
City dummy (Wuhan = 0)
0.069
0.309
-0.126
**
***
***
0.060
0.308
-0.011
*
***
-0.341
-0.092
0.030
***
**
-0.265
-0.045
-0.012
0.128
0.196
0.030
0.045
-0.037
0.149
0.125
***
***
0.160
0.130
-0.029
0.025
-0.091
0.098
0.097
Shanghai
Tianjin
Shenzhen
Class (Service worker = 0)
Party/government official
Professional
Production worker
Private business owner
Self-employed
Administrative staff
Enterprise manager
Adjusted R square
Number of cases
0.316
645
***
***
Highbrow
Books
FamilyRelated
Books
Management
Related
Books
Popular
Fictions
-0.122
0.335
-0.169
***
***
***
0.261
0.062
-0.017
***
***
-0.282
-0.078
0.009
***
*
-0.297
-0.140
0.072
***
***
*
-0.074
-0.001
0.044
***
**
0.028
0.228
0.086
0.027
0.058
0.151
0.048
***
0.045
0.061
0.046
0.043
-0.019
0.099
0.008
**
**
**
0.286
647
31
0.254
647
***
*
***
0.068
0.094
0.015
0.036
-0.013
0.065
0.187
0.208
647
0.051
-0.042
-0.241
0.054
647
***
***
Book Reading in Urban China
Table 7:
Effects of Predictors on Literary Author Preferences
(Standardized Coefficients)
Dependent Variables
And Models Predictor
Variables
Personal characteristics
Gender (Women = 0)
Education
Age
City dummy (Wuhan = 0)
Shanghai
Tianjin
Shenzhen
Class (Service worker = 0)
Party/government official
Professional
Production worker
Private business owner
Self-employed
Administrative staff
Enterprise manager
Adjusted R square
Number of cases
Number of
Literary
Authors Read
0.010
0.386
-0.015
***
-0.160
-0.057
-0.095
***
0.126
0.121
-0.014
0.001
-0.052
0.051
0.094
***
**
0.266
660
**
**
Contemporary
Novels
-0.022
0.328
-0.056
***
-0.076
-0.112
-0.004
*
**
0.118
0.112
-0.029
-0.026
-0.051
0.052
0.137
**
*
***
0.221
641
Red Classics
0.028
0.298
0.094
-0.252
0.053
-0.171
***
**
***
Romance
-0.118
0.009
-0.078
***
*
Pink Classics
0.064
0.263
-0.051
-0.032
-0.004
0.050
-0.038
-0.090
-0.078
0.071
0.052
-0.028
-0.028
-0.041
0.002
0.000
-0.015
0.076
0.011
0.114
0.009
0.076
0.010
0.120
0.101
0.020
0.032
-0.026
0.038
0.077
0.212
641
0.027
641
***
***
0.135
641
Table 8:
How many times have you gone to the following events in the last 12 months?
(Mean Score)
Movies
Sports Events
City Tours
Concerts and Plays
Art Exhibits
Overall
Shanghai
1.11
1.31
.46
.37
1.84
1.33
.36
.38
.45
.65
32
Tianjin
.61
.35
1.92
.31
.33
Wuhan
Shenzhen
1.15
1.67
.48
.83
1.99
2.43
.34
.48
.41
.41
*
***
**
*
**
*
Book Reading in Urban China
33
Book Reading in Urban China
ENDNOTES
1
The authors wish to thank Hui Niu for her assistance in preparing data files and Yu Lee
for his extensive help with all phases of data management and statistical analysis. An
earlier version of this research note was presented at a conference at University of Hong
Kong, “Repositioning Hong Kong and Shanghai in Modern Chinese History”. Financial
support for both data collection and analysis was provided by a grant from the United
States-China Cooperative Research Program of the Henry Luce Foundation.
2
Due to space limit, in this study, no effort is made to show whether variations in
reading habits have any of the consequences in China that Bourdieu or Peterson argue
they should have in any society.
3
In Boudieu’s view, for instance, compared to other alternatives, book reading can serve
as a good indicator of cultural capital (1984: 116 and 119).
4
Although book reading is an important part of social life, little empirical research on
social differences in this respect has been done in the field of China study. An exception
is Kang et al. 1998.
5
We make no effort to investigate the ultimate origins of regional subcultures, a question
that goes beyond the scope of this article.
6
Similarly, Tianjin residents love Feng Jicai’s novels much more than their counterparts
elsewhere because Feng is from the city.
7
When using oblique rotation to test whether the underlying factor structures of both sets
of variables are orthogonal, we find that, in both instances, some factor correlations are
indeed larger than 0.32. That is factor analyses are done with Oblimin rotation.
34