The Changing Population of China

In this book, top Chinese demographers introduce the reader to Chinese population policy, assess its effects and project future consequences.

In the last three decades, the Chinese have conducted the greatest demographic experiment in human history. They have sought to curb the growth of their vast population through the implementation of rigid population policy and programmes. Whilst helping to keep the population from spiralling out of control, the policy has also had unwanted consequences including an imbalance of males to females and the weakening of family kinship and old–age support networks.

This book provides a background to the policy by introducing Chinese history, society, and geographical population distribution. The contributors then examine the relation between policy, culture, and population in the past and present, and project current trends into the future. The book discusses a wide range of socio–economic impacts on China′s demographic dynamics, such as employment, social welfare and urbanization. The book′s conclusion extrapolates these trends into longer–term population projections.

1. Introduction.

2. Trends and Geographic Differentials in Mortality: Hao Hongsheng.

3. Trends and Regional Differentials in Fertility Transition: Tu Ping.

4. Health and Health Care in Transition: Tang Shenglan.

5. Population Policy and Family Planning Programme: Xie Zhenmin.

6. Age and Sex Structures: Li Yongping & Peng Xizhe.

7. Population Aging and Old Age Security: Du Peng and Tu Ping.

8. Marriage Patterns: Zeng Yi.

9. Family Patterns: Guo Zhigang.

10. Education: Peng Xizhe.

11. Employment: Zuo Xuejin.

12. Female Population: Tan Lin and Peng Xizhe.

13. Urbanization: Zhong Fenggan.

14. Floating Population and Internal Migration in China: Sun Changmin.

15. International Migration Patterns: Ye Wenzhen.

16. Ethnic Population: Du Peng.

17. Population and Environment in China: Dai Xingyi.

18. Population of China: Prospects and Challenges: Zhai Zhenwu.

19. The Distribution of China′s Population and Its Changes: Wang Guixin.

20. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: Waves of Chinese Immigrants and their Children: Lui Ping–keung.

Index.

Dr. Peng Xizhe received his Ph.D. in Population Studies from the University of London in 1988 and is Professor and Director of the Institute of Population Research, Fudan University, Shanghai. He is the Author of Demographic Transition in China: Fertility Trends since the 1950s (1991) and numerous journal articles.

Dr. Guo Zhigang is Professor and Director of the Institute of Population Research, Remin University of China, Beijing. He has edited, co–authored and translated a number of books on demography. He received his Ph.D. in Demography from Renmin University of China in 1990.

"A wide–ranging and detailed collection." Times Higher Education Supplement <!––end––>

"For students and those who want a single overall picture of Chinese population issues, this work provides a short, readable, and comprehensive guide. In short, this is an invaluable book." Population Studies

"Perhaps the most comprehensive English–language review of China′s population to date ... Of special value to students and researchers of China is the book′s documentation of population policies, programmes, regulations and their changes, which are rarely available in the English language with such clarity. The contributors, looking ′from inside out′, are clearly among the most qualified to review the administrative facets of China′s population ... This book is timely, informative and comprehensive, and is an especially useful reference for non–Chinese readers to assess the latest patterns, views and issues of population in China." Progress in Human Geography