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УДК 316+314.548
LI YU,
Research Professor, Institute of Sociology, SASS
STATUS HOMOGAMY IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA (1949-2006): A DUAL-TRAIT ANALYSIS1
This paper treats the degree of endogamy in marriage selection as the indicator of societal openness and evaluates the process and trends in the intergenerational inequality structure transmission through an empirical study of the changes in ascription- and achievement-oriented homogamy during different historical times based on the data of the Chinese General Social Survey 2006. This paper engages in a theoretical exploration of the relationship between the two homogamy strength combinations and the intergenerational inequality structure transmission and applies the dual trait analysis method to the appropriate models to control the impact of intergenerational mobility and realize technical assessment of the net independent effects of marriage selection. Analysis has shown that the level of achievement-oriented homogamy has significantly increased since China's reform and opening up began, and the ascriptive match fluctuates within a narrow band in an inverted U-shape. This implies that the current inequality structure transmission is characterized by the "Patrilineal Reproduction and Reinforcement" model, and the level of societal openness may have declined to a certain extent.
Keywords: societal openness, marriage selection, dual-trait model.
СТАТУС ГОМОГАМИИ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ КИТАЕ (1949-2006): ДВУСТОРОННИЙ АНАЛИЗ
В данной статье рассматривается степень эндогамии при выборе семейных отношений как индикатор социетальной открытости. Оцениваются процесс и тенденции в передаче меж-поколенческой структуры неравенства через эмпирическое исследование изменений в статусно и достижительно ориентированной гомогамии в разные исторические времена, на основе данных «Китайского социального исследования 2006». В статье содержится теоретическое исследование взаимосвязи между двумя комбинациями прочности гомогамии и передачей меж-поколенческой структуры неравенства. Применяется метод двустороннего анализа на соответствующих моделях для регуляции межпоколенческой мобильности и дается оценка сети независимых факторов, воздействующих на брачный выбор. Анализ показал, что уровень до-стижительно ориентированной гомогамии значительно возрос с начала реформ в Китае и расширения возможностей, а статусный брак изменяется в узком диапазоне в виде перевернутой U-образной формы. Это означает, что текущая передача структуры неравенства характеризуется как модель «патрилинейного воспроизводства и усиления», а уровень социетальной открытости сокращается до некоторой степени.
Ключевые слова: социетальная открытость, выбор семейных отношений (брака), двусторонняя модель.
1 Сокращено по: Yu Li. Status Homogamy in Contemporary China (1949-2006): A Dual-Trait Analysis // Sociol. Studies. - 2011. - Iss. 4.
Societal openness is one of the much-concerned social science topics over the years. An open society refers to one in which the main social groups are separated by vague, permeable and penetrable boundaries. The transformation of the economic system since the reform and opening up has significantly influenced the social structure and its operating mechanisms. However it is still debated whether our society is becoming more open or closed. Market optimists [1] believe that the market shatters the traditional stratification order and provides the members of the society with opportunities for fair competition. Other scholars, on the other hand, emphasize that the inequitable distribution of power and resources has given rise to the reproduction of social structure [2] or even come to the conclusion that the society has been "fractured" [3].
For a long time, the traditional research practice has been to use the intergenera-tional social mobility as the indicator of societal openness. Over the past 20 years, some scholars have attempted to approach societal openness from the perspective of status homogamy, which has become a near indicator for measuring societal openness [4].
This paper offers some experience-backed insights into China's societal openness trends from a different angle and attempts to outline the characteristics of the transformation trends in social structure through an empirical study on the historical changes in status homogamy.
1. Status Homogamy and the Reproduction of Inequality Structures
Status homogamy essentially refers to the question about "who marries who". Sociologists often explore the status homogamy model from the perspective of "endogamy", which means that in marriage selection, people tend to follow the marriage selection model under which the spouse is chosen from the same or similar social strata [5].
In the marriage selection practices in traditional societies, families from strata with higher social status usually encourage their offspring to opt for endogamy within their respective strata by emphasizing the marriage selection principle of "match between families with equal social rank" homogamy and manipulate the marriage selection behaviors of their offspring through marriage arrangements such as "match-makers' words", "orders from parents" and even "parent-arranged marriages". Marriage barriers are set up, intentionally or unintentionally, to prevent members of the lower social strata to "climb up" the social hierarchy. In this sense, the establishment of marital relation has become a tool for maintaining the existing social structure and enhancing unity within the social stratum [6] and even been perceived as a key foundation for fostering stratum cohesion and identity and one of the primary mechanisms of intergenerational transmission and reproduction [7].
In modern societies, the proposition that "Love is the foundation of marriage" and "free courtship" has been well embraced by the people. This, combined with the growing geographic and social status movements arising from the Industrial Revolution and urbanization process, has made traditional means of marriage control increasingly inadequate. Therefore the modernization theory expects the endogamy
characteristics of traditional marriage to be weakened under the impact of the modernization trend, which means less distinctive strata boundaries and higher degree of inter-strata fusion and societal openness. In this sense, the degree of endogamy, the intergenerational social mobility and inter-strata social interaction form the three main indicators of societal openness.
The western scholars have studied status homogamy for half a century [8; 9] and the core question they raise is whether endogamy in marriage selection has been weakened by the modernization process. In terms of research strategy, Kalmijn (1991) made a major contribution by imitating the theoretical framework of the Status Attainment Model [10] and distinguishing ascription-oriented homogamy from the achievement-oriented homogamy. The ascription-oriented homogamy, which compares the social origins of spouses in marriage to see to the match marriage in equal social ranks, measures the intergenerational openness of the society from the perspective of intergenerational reproduction of social stratum. Achievement-oriented homogamy, on the other hand, examines spouses per se to see if they are homogamous in areas such as occupation and education, laying emphasis on the construction and solidification of the inequality structure of new generations [11].
What this paper tries to highlight is that the process of status homogamy is also the self-construction, duplication and reproduction process of social inequality. The social status matching of spouses in marriage has a substantive impact on the reinforcement, reproduction or restructuring of the social structure of inequality. When people follow the homogamy model under which their spouses are chosen from the same or similar social strata, the existing social inequality will be fully duplicated in the social status structure of the next generation family. In such a case, marriage not only fails to eliminate inequality among individuals but also duplicates and passes on social inequality to the next generation through intergenerational transmission. On the other hand, if the social statuses of spouses in marriage are randomly matched, the new inequality of the newly formed family will be significantly lowered. This will weaken the inequality structure transmission and reproduction from the old generation to the new generation and hence impact and deconstruct the existing social inequality. In this sense, the social status homogamy of spouses in marriage is more than just an effective indicator of the societal openness but also a key link in studying inequality reproduction.
The modernization theory once made an optimistic prediction that due to effects of industrialization and love, both the ascription- and achievement-oriented homo-gamy would decline in a modern society [12]. However, the reality may disagree as these two types of homogamy may change in different directions, i. e. it is possible that one type of homogamy is strengthened while the other is weakened. Therefore, it is the author's opinion that the analytical edge of the ascriptive-achievement framework lies not only in the effective clarification and distinction of the previously vague concept of endogamy but more importantly in the further exploration of its impact on intergenerational inequality structure transmission, which adds a new analytical dimension to the discussion on the current status and trends of societal
openness, through the analyses of the development trends and strengthen combination of these two types of homogamy as well. To the author's knowledge, this has never been adequately explored in the work of Chinese and foreign scholars. The relationship between the homogamy strength combinations and intergenerational inequality structure transmission is illustrated in table 1 below.
Table 1. Structural Outcomes of Inequality Derived From Combinations of Homogamy Trends
Ascriptive-oriented Homogamy (Match-Door) Achievement-oriented Homogamy (Matchable Spouses)
Solidification of Structure Dual Segregation Strong Strong
Duplication Strong Weak
Replacement Weak Strong
Erosion of Structure Weak Weak
In the event that the ascription-oriented and achievement-oriented characteristics are both strong, dual segregation will be manifested in the social structure composed of new generation families: the inequitable segregation of the old generation is completely preserved while the inequality in the new generation is strengthened. If we divide the social members into two basic groups, namely the elite and the mass, then in this system, four marriage subgroups will be formed: marriages within the new-elites with elite origins (old-elite's offspring), within the new-masses with elite origins, within the new-elites with mass origins, and within the new-masses with mass origins. These four subgroups are cross-segregated by distinguishing the characteristics (elite or mass) of social origins and status attainment of new generation. In other words, those marriage-circles are divided up according to ascriptive- and achievement-oriented characteristics, and thus called "dual segregation". Similarly, when both ascription- and achievement-oriented preferences in marriage choice are weak, "erosion of structure" occurs, and the pattern of social inequality will be weakened due to the heterogeneity of spouses in marriage.
When the ascription-oriented homogamy is strong and the achievement-oriented homogamy is weak, the stratification of the old generation is fully reproduced in the new inequality structure but the solidification of strata in the new generation is contained. Hence there are only two marriage circles, namely marriage between the children of the elite and between the children of the mass. In such a case, there is one segregation dimension, namely whether or not the spouses are from elite families. This dimension is based solely on social origin, making it a "duplication" of the old stratification structure.
When the ascription-oriented homogamy is weak and achievement-oriented ho-mogamy is strong, the stratification of the previous generation is completely discarded. This means marriage selection disregards the social origins of spouses and is based solely on the stratification of the new generation. In this way, the new inequality structure is reinforced and the old stratification structure is eroded. In such a case, there are also two marriage circles only, differentiated by whether the new generation spouses are the successful elites rather than whether they are from elite
origins. Thus, the new structure of inequality "replaces" the old stratification of the old generation.
Different combinations of ascriptive-oriented and achievement-oriented homogamy will result in different degrees of social inequality transmission, "Dual Segregation", "Duplication" and "Replacement" is forms of intergenerational reinforcement or solidification of structure. Duplication refers to the replication of the inequitable structure. Replacement refers to the substitution of old structure with new inequality while dual segregation refers to the overlapping of old and new inequality structures. Only when both the ascriptive-oriented and achievement-oriented characteristics are weakened will the structural inequality be reduced by marriage.
The above segregation of the theoretical types attempts to illustrate the structural outcomes from the strengthen combination of marriage selection methods. However, it should be noted that there is a fundamental presumption that the society has a certain amount of intergenerational mobility. In the event that a society shares the rigidity of the caste system of India, the high level of consistency between the social statuses of the old and new generations will lead to the pursuit of match-door marriage, i. e. matchable status. In this way, both the "Dual Segregation" and "Replacement" will turn into the "Duplication" model. Although we can think that under normal circumstances, a society will inevitably have a certain amount of intergenerational reproduction, the level of intergenerational reproduction (or intergenerational mobility) may fluctuate through different historical times, making it difficult for us to distinguish whether the status homogamy observed arise from changes in intergenerational reproduction or genuine changes in the homogamy strength1. In order to truly distinguish between the net independent effects of ascriptive- and achievement-oriented homogamy and go further to demonstrate the relevant structural outcomes and trends in a truly effective manner in connection with the corresponding intergenerational reproduction status, we must be capable of effective control and estimation of the intergenerational reproduction on the technical level. The research of this paper aims to realize the technical estimation of the net independent effect of homogamy, which will serve as an indicator for measuring the current societal openness on one hand and offer reference for the prediction of future trends in inequality structure through the demonstration of changes in such effects through different historical times on the other.
2. Social Background and Research Hypotheses
The history of China after 1949 can be roughly divided into two stages separated by the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party held in 1978. The first 30 years was a period of the formation and
1 When the level of intergenerational mobility and the ascriptive- and achievement-oriented models of status homogamy changes simultaneously, the social structure transformation will produce more complicated outcomes. In addition, in societies with higher level of social inheritance, the extent of achievement-oriented homogamy may be over-estimated. For instance, in traditional societies which lack intergenerational mobility, the higher level of achievement-oriented homogamy between the spouses observed was largely attributable to ascriptive-oriented match-door homogamy.
establishment of the socialist social-economic system characterized by "redistribution" while the second 30 years was a period during which the reform was gradually furthered and the market-oriented principle was increasingly applied in every dimension of China's economic and social life.
After rising to power, the Communist Party of China took less than 10 years to complete the "Socialist Transformation", realize the all-around transformation of the social-economic systems and establish a comprehensive set of stratification structure under socialism regime. In contrast to industrialized market societies, the stratification order of a redistributive economy was characterized by the allocation of resources by the state through a top-down approach across different regions, economic sectors and various types of organizations based on its policies and needs rather than the market mechanisms. Furthermore, the social economic statuses of various occupations were different from those under market economy. The remunerations to professional and technological staffs were rather low, while those of cadres were at the top of the stratification system. Under this system, the life chances of social groups and individuals were not only determined by their occupations, but also by the districts they were residing, their work units' organizational types and ranks in state-hierarchy and their individual status in the political stratification structure [13].
After the market-oriented reform in 1978, in two respects, great changes had taken place in the social stratification order. One is that as the gradual establishment of market economy principle and labor market. The return of human capital increased, the "iron bowl" of life-long employment was broken, and the structure of social economic status gradually became consistent with Western market economy. Meanwhile, the economic inequality indicated by Gini Coefficient rapidly increased, China was transformed from a country of "Destratification" [14] into one of the countries with obvious social polarity. We find that the disparity of income rapidly widened in 1992, when the reform towards market economy was intensified [15; 16]. Some scholars describe the characteristics of the stratification transformation as "from political stratification towards economic stratification" [17].
In order to depict the changes in the reform process more clearly, this paper divides the time after 1949 into three periods: the Pre-reform Stage (1949-1978), Initial Reform Stage (1979-1992) and the Intensified Reform Stage (1993 to date). The two reform stages are separated by the southern tour of Deng Xiaoping in 1992, which announced the overall implementation of the market economy. The first stage is the transition stage from the planned economy to the market economy. In the second stage, the market-oriented principle not only attained political legitimacy but also facilitated the rapid development of non-state-owned economy. The purpose of such period division is to understand the impact of gradual process of application of market principles on marriage selection through the comparison between initial and intensified reform stages and illustrate the difference between marriage selection models under different stratification orders through contrast with pre-reform times.
With regard to marriage selection, the traditional Chinese culture has attached great importance to "match-door" status and exercised the families' and clans'
control over children's marriage selection through "parent-arranged marriages" [18]. In 1950, the second year after the Communist Party rose to power, a new Law of Marriage was promulgated. The principle of "free courtship" and "free marriage" was established. The law opposed arranged marriage prohibited acts such as trading marriage, marrying concubines, taking child brides etc. In the following 10 years, the new marriage law was carried and enforced effectively. Young people, especially young women, acquired unprecedented freedom in marriage selection; the power of parents over their children's marriage choices decreased [19]. However, during this period, through work unit system, the State still had certain control over personal private life though the existing researches show that the interferences of the units was limited, the main interference that lied in match-door principle based on political status was strengthened. Work units prevent members of Chinese Communist Party, cadres, service men and women, confidential employees and the "prospective candidates" from marrying spouses with "tainted" origin and background [20].
After the reform, work units gradually gave up their administrative control over personal private life; the market transition also promoted the geographic and social mobility. Individuals have acquired unprecedented private spaces. Marriage selections have rid of the influence of political factors and become individuals' choices. The role of romantic love has been heightened in marriage selections.
In light of the aforementioned social situation, the homogeneous transformation of marriage selection is under the influence of both transformation of application of market principles and romantic love. Thus, two paradoxical research hypotheses may be put forward.
2.1. The Hypothesis of the Influence of Market-oriented Transformation
Some researches show that as market transformation goes on and the competition for opportunity intensifies, social structure will move towards a closed model and the boundaries among classes will be strengthened [21]. Looking at the transformation of social stratification structure before and after China's reform, it is clear that the increasing autonomy and independence of people came with deceasing protection under the life-long employment system and the individuals and families were directly burdened with the widening social polarization and increasing market risks arising from the process of application of market principles, presenting the parties to marriages with tremendous practical pressure. It is reasonable to predict that during the process of marriage selection, both parties to the marriage will, in face of such a highly uncertain market and highly polarized social environment and in order to provide the future family and offspring with the best possible life, evaluate the social-economic status and career-development potential of their prospective partners more prudently. In such evaluation, education attainment is no doubt one of the best indicators. Existing researches based on data from the demographic census conducted in 2000 have clearly indicated that the educational homogamy between spouses in marriage has been rapidly increasing since the 1980s [22].
Hence, the following hypotheses are proposed:
Hypothesis 1: The status homogamy in marriage selection will continue to increase along with the reform progress.
Hypotheses 1 can also be further detailed as:
Hypothesis 1a: The ascriptive-oriented homogamy continues to increase during all three periods.
Hypothesis 1b: The achievement-oriented homogamy continues to increase during all three periods.
2.2. The Hypothesis of Romantic Love
The blindness of romantic love is a potential threat to the existing social structure. Therefore, "match-door" status was emphasized in marriage selection in the traditional society and the parents interfere with their children's marriage through "match-makers' words", "orders from parents" and even "parent-arranged marriages" [6]. As the modernization theory has predicted, the accelerated industrialization and urbanization are accompanied by greater geographical mobility and weakened control over the marriage selection of the offspring through parent-arranged marriage and the young people are blessed with unprecedented scope and frequency of social interaction. Meanwhile, the proposition that "Love is the foundation of marriage" and "free courtship" has been well embraced by the people and marriage selection based on romantic love will become the main form of marriage. While education and income remain important criteria in marriage selection, emotional and psychological factors have gained increasing importance. Character, personality, common interests and shared tastes have become important prerequisites for marriage. Therefore, as the control over personal marriage choices by family and work unit further weakened in the reform process, the young people's way of thinking and living have become increasingly westernized. Under the hypothesis of romantic love, a declining trend should be observed from the educational homogamy between spouses in marriage [4; 23].
Hence, the following hypotheses in contrary to Hypothesis 1 are proposed:
Hypothesis 2: The status homogamy in marriage selection will continue to decrease along with the reform progress.
Hypothesis 2a: The ascriptive-oriented homogamy continues to decrease during all three periods.
Hypothesis 2b: The achievement-oriented homogamy continues to decrease during all three periods.
3. Data and Model
This paper uses the data from Chinese General Social Survey 2006 and the educational attainment of the spouses and their father strata as indicators to reveal the trends in status homogamy during various periods. A weighted sample of 8014 couples with relatively complete first marriage data is obtained through data processing. In accordance with China's social conditions, the years of first marriages are divided into three periods: Pre-Reform Stage (1949-1978), Initial Reform Stage (1979-1992) and Intensified Reform Stage (1993-2006). The father strata (non-manual labor, manual labor and peasants) and educational attainment (primary and below, junior middle, senior middle and college and above) are employed as indicators of social origin and spouse homogamy respectively.
In contrast to the traditional single-trait model under which the ascriptive-ori-ented homogamy and achievement-oriented homogamy are analyzed individually, this paper adopts the dual-trait analysis model to analyze and evaluate these two dimensions of homogamy simultaneously under one single model. The strength of this model lies in its ability to effectively control the intergenerational reproduction factor and distinguish the independent effects of ascriptive and achievement-oriented homogamy and obtain a reliable evaluation of the degree of and changes in status homogamy [24; 25]. Refer to the following figure:
Single Trait Model Dual Trait Model
Comparison between Single-trait and Dual-trait Analyses 4. Model Selection process and Result
This paper utilizes the Lem software for computation [26]. The model selection process is illustrated in table 2. The selection approach is to include various effects and trends during different periods on the basis of an independent model to form
Table 2. Dual-trait Trend Analysis of Homogamy of Social Origin and Education Attainment
(1949-2006)
Models L2 df BIC Remarks
1 Independent model
C + W + H + M + F 9963 419 6198
2 Marginal Distribution*Cohort
(1) + CH + CW + CF + CM 7508 399 3922
3 Dual Trait Trend Model
a (2) + fluctuation in all association (varied ) 469 350 -2677 Full Model (Formula 1)
b (3a) + constraint ■ ■ = 1 469 352 -2695
c (3b) + constraint ■ " = 1 470 354 -2712
d (3c) + constraint '" = 1 477 356 -2723 BEST model
e (3d) + constraint ■ = 1 502 358 -2716
f (3d) + constraint ■:' = 1 501 358 -2717
g (3d) + constraint -;- ' = 1 519 358 -2698
The end of the table. 2
Models L2 df BIC Remarks
4 Dual Trait Trend Model with saturated FHC & MWC
a (2) + FMC + MWC + fluctuation in HW FM MH and FW association 422 330 -2545 Full Model (Formula 2)
b (4a) + constraint ■-■¡:i ' ' = 1 423 332 -2562
c (4b) + constraint = 1 424 334 -2578 BEST model
d (4c) + constraint -;- ' = 1 463 336 -2557
e (4c) + constraint ' = 1 448 336 -2572
5 Dual Trait Trend Model with saturated HWC FMC MHC & FWC
a (2) + FMC + MWC + fluctuation in FH & MW association 410 308 -2359 Full Model (Formula 3)
b (5a) + constraint ■ ■ = 1 411 310 -2376 BEST model
c (5a) + constraint -t,'"' = 1 423 310 -2363
Table 3. Parameters of Social Origin and Education by Marriage Period: China 1949-2006 (selected models of table 2)
Marriage Period | Model 3d | Model 4c | Model 5b
Educational Homogamy (^ ' )
1949-1978 (control group) 1.000 1.000
1978-1992 1.169 1.138
1993-2006 1.567 1.522
Homogamy of social origin ( ' )
1949-1978 (control group) 1.000 1.000
1978-1992 1.232 1.217
1993-2006 0.920 0.899
Reproduction effect (male •t'/ )
1949-1978 (control group) 1.000 1.000
1978-1992 1.310 1.267
1993-2006 2.606 2.208
a full model. The full model is then simplified to gain maximum explanatory power at the minimum loss of degree of freedom. Specifically, the paper uses a backward method with the full model as baseline to diagnose each <]>, and any insignificant qi, is omitted. It needs to be emphasized that <|», is not significant doesn't mean this effect do not exist, but means this effect will not change significantly during three periods.
Estimation of the parameter that has significantly changed through the periods is shown in table 3. The estimation is based on the best model illustrated in table 2.
Statistics results shown in Table 3 indicate that:
(1) Since the Cultural Revolution, the degree of achievement-oriented homogamy, represented by (I)/''", has increased significantly and stably. In Model 3d, when 4>/" =1, with the Pre-Reform period (1949-1978) as reference group, the of the Initial Reform Stage increased up to 1.169, and rapidly increased to 1.567 after 1992. This trend is tested and turns out to hold true in Model 4c, and also confirmed by the calculation based on Chinese Census Data 2000 [22].
(2) <|>.jr"', the parameter represents the social origin homogamy between first marriage couples goes through a process from the increase at the beginning to decrease starting from the middle, and draws a upside-down U shape. It indicates that during the period of Initial Reform Stage (1979-1992), the homogamy reached a peak, but fluctuated little, and this retested the results from Model 3d and 4c.
(3) Husbands" intergenerational reproductions, namely the association between husband's social origin and educational attainment indicated by ^ increased significantly, and the magnitude of such increase is remarkable, from 1.267 at the beginning of the Initial Reform Stage to 2.208 after 1992; but wives' intergenerational reproductions and the two exchange effects did not change significantly, and thus were omitted from table 3.
5. Conclusion and Discussion
5.1. Marriage Selection Model
The empirical research results support Hypothesis 1a. The achievement-oriented homogamy had been increasing during all three periods, but the ascriptive-oriented homogamy had not been decreasing continuously as predicted by Hypothesis 1b. Although the fluctuation magnitude is moderate, a clear inverted U-shape can still be observed from the fluctuation. Such results may be attributable to the following two reasons:
5.1.1. Different Stratification Orders in Pre-Reform and Post-Reform Periods
The statistical analysis of inter-temporal comparison is based on one implicit assumption that both the validity and reliability of the indicators in the models are consistent throughout different periods. If the theoretical definition or measurement accuracy of this indicator varies from period to period, the results of the models will be distorted, if not misled. Although the model in this paper employs educational attainment and social stratum, which are universal indicators in this research field, in the measurement of social status, China social stratification structure under the "redistributive" system, as described above, to a certain extent deviates from those of industrialized market societies and household registration, type of work units and political identity significantly affect the life-time opportunities of individuals while the educational level and occupational classes play much weaker roles that they do in market-oriented societies. As a result, when only these two indicators are used to demonstrate marriage selection status in China during the Pre-Reform period, the degree of homogamy then might be underestimated. In a society of "Destra-tification", status homogamy will be better reflected in other areas that these two status indicators fail to effectively cover. For example, the indicators cannot reflect the ownership-oriented homogamy to which people back then attached great signifi-
cance (females under public-ownership were reluctant to marry males under collective-ownership). Therefore, when ascriptive-oriented homogamy and achievement-oriented homogamy appeared to be lower in the Pre-Reform period, it might not indicate that status homogamy was less considered by young people back then in their marriage selection, but might possibly arise from the failure by the status indicators employed to clearly understand the difference between and transformation of both stratification orders. In this sense, the higher levels of ascriptive-oriented homogamy and achievement-oriented homogamy in the Initial Reform Stage (19781992) as compared with the Pre-Reform Stage may only indicate that the old stratification order was less sensitive to the educational attainments and occupational classes, which were better suited for the post-reform market-oriented society.
5.1.2. Status Homogamy in the process of Application of Market principles
When comparing the status homogamy during the Initial Reform Stage (19781992) and Deepened Stage of the Reform (1993-2006), it can be seen that the achievement-oriented homogamy went up and ascriptive-oriented homogamy went down. The former finding supports Hypothesis 1a and the latter supports Hypothesis 2b. This reveals that as the market transition progressed, ascriptive-oriented ho-mogamy and achievement homogamy were heading in two directions under the polarized social structure. Further exploration is needed to find out the reasons underlying this phenomenon. At this stage, it is the initial speculation of the author that this implies young men and women are looking for a balance between the pressure from reality and romantic love, paying more attention to the statuses and potentials of their partners', but little attention to their partners' family background. Furthermore, the magnitude of decrease in ascriptive-oriented homogamy is not significant, indicating that family background still played an important role in marriage selection.
5.2. characteristics of Inequality Structure Transmission
This paper aims to describe the transformation of Chinese society's openness and attempts to reveal the characteristics of the inequality structure transmission through the examination of the trends in ascriptive-oriented homogamy and achievement-oriented homogamy. The empirical research findings fail to provide a clear and straight-forward answer to the societal openness during transition of application of market principles over the past 30 years. As pointed out above, the ascriptive- and achievement-oriented homogamy has manifested different development trends. In simple terms of quantitative association, the achievement-oriented homogamy increased significantly and the ascriptive-oriented homogamy showed limited decline. If a simple, if not over-simplified, answer is needed, then the result implies that the societal openness of China has declined over the past 30 years.
Based on the ideal classification in table 1, as ascriptive-oriented homogamy decreases and achievement-oriented homogamy increases, the intergenerational transmission of social inequality structure tends to manifest the "replacement" pattern. "Replacement" means that the old social inequality structure is substituted by a new one. Nonetheless, the complete replacement is based on one prerequisite that no in-tergenerational reproduction of social status (between father and son or father and
daughter) of any kind exists. As long as such intergenerational reproduction exists, it is impossible to realize complete "replacement". The extent of replacement is determined by the strength of the intergenerational reproduction. As the intergenera-tional reproduction is stronger, the social inequality structure will be less replaced and vise versa.
According to statistical analysis, while the ascriptive-oriented homogamy decreased and achievement-oriented homogamy increased during the two post-reform periods, the strength of intergenerational reproduction did not remain unchanged. The male intergenerational reproduction between father and son increased significantly, but the female intergenerational reproduction between father and daughter showed no observable change. This indicates that while the ascriptive-oriented homogamy has been eroded, level of vertical inequality structure transmission through father-son relationship has been strengthened. Meanwhile, as the male inheritor of the father generation's social status, the child generation further solidifies the new inequality structure through enhanced achievement-oriented homogamy (and reproduces the old inequality structure as inherited at the same time). Such characteristics of inequality structure transmission can be summarized as "Patrilineal Reproduction and Reinforcement" model. It is essentially the combination of male intergeneration reproduction and dual-solidification effect by the child generation through "replacement" Under this model, it is rather difficult to effective improve the overall level of societal openness.
Lastly, it should be noted that the scope and extent of the impact of economic transformation on different areas of societal openness, such as intergenerational mobility, occupational mobility and status homogamy, may vary. This paper only offers a preliminary and indirect evaluation of the transformation history, direction and characteristics of social inequality structure from the perspective of status ho-mogamy. The thoroughness and reliability of the conclusion certainly requires further verification through additional materials and research findings. Nevertheless, the profound impact of the drastic social polarization and pressure from market uncertainties on the societal openness development and individual choice in a time of transformation no doubt calls for further discussion by the academic circle.
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Date accepted 18.10.2015.
