This 1984 book deals with those social transformations which occurred in Chinese society since the revolution in 1949. During the 1950s the Chinese Communist Party introduced a rigid system of class labels (e.g. landlord rich peasant middle peasant landless labourer) based on pre-revolutionary notions of exploitation and property ownership. The class label system was a source of much social discontent during the 1960s and mid-1970s; the official use of labels ceased by the time of this book s publication but the effects of the system are still felt by millions of Chinese. The book will be of interest to a wide range of readers not just those who specialise in Chinese social history. Contributors include two anthropologists one historian three political scientists and three sociologists.