The Evolution of Modern Chinese Elites in the 20th Century

Xingchen Lan, New York University
Junyan Jiang, Columbia University

Elites are crucial actors in the process of social and political changes, yet our understanding of the background and compositions of elites over long dur\'ee is often limited by the availability of data. We compile to our knowledge the largest biographical database of modern Chinese elites, covering over 60,000 unique individuals who were active in the fields of politics, business, and culture between the mid-19th century to late 20th century. We track the changing social and regional compositions of distinct elite bodies and examine how the compositions are shaped by both past accumulation of human capital and contemporaneous political or economic shocks.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 61. Historical Social Sciences and China (I): New Approaches to Studying Elite Politics