This research provides a social profile of the typical individual in Mainland China--the Peoples Republic of China. Where appropriate, contrasts are made on a regional basis, north versus south, as an example. More often, however, the relevant contrast is between urban and rural Chinese.
Officially, there are 56 nationality, or ethnic, population groups in Mainland China. In the 55 smaller groups, there are 70 million people (greater than the population of most countries) who are distributed over 60 percent of China's geographic area (Waddle, 1987). The country's largest ethnic group--the Han Chinese, however, number in excess of one billion persons. Therefore, the typical Mainland Chinese must be viewed as an ethnic Han. There are great differences, however, within the Han ethnic group. Eight mutually unintelligible language dialects are spoken by the Han, each of which contains several sub-dialects, and differences in cuisine, dress, and custom also characterize the Han residing in different regions of the country (DeGlopper, 1987). The Han Chinese, however, consider such differences "as minor and superficial" (DeGlopper, 1987, p. 101). One great unifying characteristic of the Han Chinese is the written language, which does not reflect the differences between the spoken dialects and sub-dialects (DeGlopper, 1987). Circa 200 A.D., Han ethnic unity was developed by the centralized imperial state of the Han Dynasty. This legacy of a strong central government and of Han unity survives and is significant in contemporary Mainland China (DeGlopper, 1987).
The estimated population of Mainland China in 1990 approximated 1,110,000,000 (Paxton, 1991). The country's population target for 2000 is 1,270,000,000 (Paxton, 1991). Females account for 51.6 percent of China's population, males 48.4 percent (Paxton, 1991). In the early-1990s, 75.1 percent of China's population resides in rural areas, 24.9 percent in urban areas (Pa...