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Urban Chinese Support for the Chinese Dream: Empirical Findings from Seventeen Cities

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Abstract

To what extent do Chinese citizens support the concept of the Chinese dream? What is the major source for the support of the Chinese dream among Chinese citizens? There is almost no representative-sample study to systematically address these questions. To fill in this gap, this article examines the intensity and the source of the Chinese people’s support for the Chinese dream. Based on a seventeen-cities survey, this research revealed the following: first, the support for the Chinese dream among Chinese urban residents is very high and real; second, the concept of the Chinese dream has three dimensions (i.e., national dream, social dream, and individual dream) and a strong collectivistic feature which is in sharp contrast with the individualistic American dream. The construction of the Chinese dream is actually based on Chinese traditional culture: respect for political authority, desire for social order and support for a powerful government. In the end, this research suggests that the construction of the Chinese dream should remain open and change with the evolving public values in China.

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Notes

  1. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Exciting Statements on “Chinese dream”, People’s Daily, November 30, 2012, p.1.

  2. Thomas Friedman, “China Needs Its Own Dream,” The New York Times, October 2, 2012.

  3. [1]

  4. Ibid., 11.

  5. [2, 3]

  6. [4, 5]

  7. [6]

  8. David Gosset, “Xi Jinping - Person of the Year 2013,” The Huffington Post, December 4, 2013.

  9. [7]

  10. [8]

  11. [9]

  12. [10]

  13. Robert Lawrence Kuhn, “Xi Jinping’s Chinese dream,” The New York Times, June 3, 2013.

  14. Ibid.

  15. If the result of χ 2 / d.f. falls in between 1 and 3, it indicates a high goodness of fit between the sample data and the model; if the result of χ 2 / df is greater than 3, it indicates extremely high goodness of fit between the sample data and the model; If the result of χ 2 / df is less than 1, it indicates that the model is not a good one and it cannot effectively represent the sample data.

  16. If the values of incremental fit index (IFI) and comparative fit index (CFI) exceed 0.90 respectively, they indicate a high goodness of fit between the sample data and the model.

  17. [11, 12]

  18. [13–16]

  19. Huntington, “Democracy’s Third Wave,” 24.

  20. [17]

  21. [18]

  22. [19]

  23. [20, 21]

  24. If the result of χ 2 / d.f. falls in between 1 and 3, it indicates a high goodness of fit between the sample data and model; if the result of χ 2 / df is greater than 3, it indicates extremely high goodness of fit between the sample data and model; If the result of χ 2 / df is less than 1, it indicates that the model is not good and incapable of effectively representing the data.

  25. If the values of incremental fit index (IFI) and comparative fit index (CFI) exceed 0.90 respectively, they indicate a high goodness of fit between the sample data and the model.

  26. Byrne, Structural Equation Modeling With AMOS: Basic Concepts, Applications, and Programming; Kline, Principle and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling.

  27. [22, 23]

  28. [24–26]

  29. [27, 28]

  30. [29]

  31. For more discussion on the generalizability of findings about relationships between variables in the study of contemporary China, see [30].

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0982).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Politics and Public Administration, China University of Political Science and Law, Fuxue Street 27, Changping District, Beijing, 102249, People’s Republic of China

    Chunlong Lu

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Correspondence to Chunlong Lu.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Survey and Sampling

The data used in this study came from a nation-wide public opinion survey conducted from July 2013 to August 2013. The design of the questionnaire, the sample and the implementation of the actual survey were conducted by the School of Politics and Public Administration at China University of Political Science and Law. The survey was based on a probability sample of 3000 respondents in seventeen large and medium Chinese cities (Beijing, Shenyang, Tianjin, Chengdu, Wuhan, Xi’an, Zhengzhou, Nanning, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Lanzhou, Guiyang, Dalian, Nantong and Sanya). The survey was based on a probability sample of the general urban residents of these seventeen cities, aged 18 years and older. This probability sample was derived from a multistage sampling strategy. Two urban districts (qu) were randomly chosen at the first sampling stage in each city. At the second sampling stage, two streets (jiedao) were randomly selected from the two districts in each city, yielding a total of 68 streets. From each of the 68 streets, two residents’ communities were randomly chosen at the third stage of sampling, yielding a total of 136 residents’ communities in seventeen Chinese cities. Then 3000 households were randomly chosen from 136 residents’ communities. At the final stage, one individual was chosen randomly from each of the 3000 households as the interviewee. The adjusted response rate of this survey was 95.9 % percent (2878), which was very high by Western standards, but quite similar to the response rates from other surveys conducted in China.Footnote 29

Many scholars who have conducted public opinion surveys in China were faced with the question of the reliability of their surveys when carried out in China. There are four factors to assure the reliability of my public opinion survey in this study. Firstly, the questionnaire was desensitized to make sure there were no politically sensitive questions for respondents. Secondly, the survey was anonymous, and respondents were offered confidentiality and encouraged to provide answers that best captured their true feelings. Thirdly, respondents were informed that this survey was conducted by the School of Politics and Public Administration at China University of Political Science and Law and was not related to any government agency. College students from the School of Politics and Public Administration at China University of Political Science and Law were employed as field interviewers, having been trained by the project members in field interviewing techniques before the actual survey was carried out. Fourthly, in general, previous empirical studies conducted by other scholars have suggested that Chinese respondents feel free to express their views in a public opinion survey.

Like many other public opinion surveys that have been conducted in Mainland

China, this survey produces two kinds of results: descriptive and relational.Footnote 30 Both results can offer two important insights into the study of the Chinese dream in urban China. Firstly, although the descriptive results from this survey (such as the level of the support for the Chinese dream) may change over time in various degrees, they do help to establish some needed statistical baselines for subsequent studies of the support for the Chinese dream. These baselines are especially useful and important since representative-sample survey studies of this sort are scarce.

Secondly, since most if not all of these relationships are generic in nature,Footnote 31 the survey’s relational findings regarding the relationships between support for the Chinese dream on one hand, and traditional political values on the other hand, should capture the fundamental causal relationship between them. Thus, it can be said that the data from this survey can have broad implications for our understanding of the level and origins of the support for the Chinese dream.

Appendix 2: Selected Questions in the Survey

  1. 1.

    Would you please evaluate the following statements according to the following rules: 1 stands for “completely disagree”, 2 for “disagree”, 3 for “having no idea”, 4 for “agree” and 5 for “completely agree”.

    • 1–1 China should play a more important role in Asia and the world.

    • 1–2 No matter what economic and political events occur in China, I will always feel proud of being Chinese.

    • 1–3 Although China is currently experiencing much hardship, I believe that China has a bright future.

    • 1–4 I support the existing basic principles of socialism in China.

    • 1–5 I believe that China’s judicial system guarantees fair trial.

    • 1–6 Despite all of the problems in our society, I believe that mainstream society follows equality and justice.

    • 1–7 Most people in our society, familiar or not, are trustworthy.

    • 1–8 Although many people in our society benefit from personal connections (guanxi), I think that everyone is given an equal opportunity in our society today.

    • 1–9 The country and our society has created a platform refined enough that, with individual hard work, we can achieve the ideal of living a happy and peaceful life.

    • 1–10 I have full confidence that my personal dream that will become true.

  2. 2

    Would you please evaluate the following six statements according to the following rules: 1 standing for “totally disagree”, 2 standing for “disagree”, 3 standing for “having no idea”, 4 standing for “agree” and 5 standing for “completely agree.”

    • 2–1 The government leader acts like the head of household, and people should follow his decisions.

    • 2–2 A country with several political parties competing for power, would lead to political chaos.

    • 2–3 It’s mainly the responsibility of the party and the government rather than the people to further promote political reform.

    • 2–4 A virtuous leader is more suitable than an elected leader to serve as a political leader.

    • 2–5 We need a powerful government to deal with the complex economic problems today.

    • 2–6 A powerful government is sometimes more efficient than a democratic government.

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Lu, C. Urban Chinese Support for the Chinese Dream: Empirical Findings from Seventeen Cities. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI 20, 143–161 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-015-9343-5

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