Is life getting better? Are our societies making progress? Indeed, what does “progress” mean to the world’s citizens? For a good portion of the 20th century there was an implicit assumption that economic growth was synonymous with progress: an assumption that a growing GDP meant life must...

Foreword -- Preface -- Introduction -- : basic institutions of the Chinese societies -- The Chinese society in pre-reform China -- The institutional changes in post-reform China -- Socioeconomic changes in the Chinese societies -- Chinese family and kinship : yesterday and today -- Chinese women...