Acknowledgements

“We social scientists of the current generation are fortunate in being able to witness firsthand social changes in China and to have opportunities to observe, document, analyze, and understand them as they occur.”

– Xie, Yu (2011:17)

I can never agree more on this comment. I am lucky, that I am wrapping up my undergraduate career by taking my first formal step forward on studying China and identifying my life-long passion; I am even more fortunate, that I got to know so many fantatic individuals via my thesis project.

My thanks are due first and foremost to my thesis advisor, Alexandra Killewald, whose guidance and patience made this thesis possible. I am deeply greatful to Sasha for her feedback and suggestions on literally everything, from topic choice to quantitative methods, from logic to language in writing. Without her millions of comments, I could not grow to who I am today.

Thanks are also due to our program coordinators, K. M. and R. A., for organizing the wonderful thesis seminars. I have particularly benefited from K.’s comments that pointed out the places where I needed more clarification.

I have also benefited from my peers in the 2024-2025 senior thesis cohort and in the Sociology 542 class, who made the lonely journey of academic studies a joyful and sweet period of time. I am thankful for their feedback that encouraged me to keep improving my thesis. I have been fortunate to receive support from J. M. and Y. X. both for and beyond the thesis project.

Numerous additional faculty and staff at the University of Michigan and other insitutions provided helpful instructions, tips, and support in various stages of my thesis project. I wish to thank in particular S. B., T. D., J. D., L. E., D. S., and Y. X.

The Chinese General Social Survey is primarily committed by the National Survey Reserach Center at the Renmin University of China (RUC), sponsored by RUC 985 Grant and RUC Scientific Research Grant.

Lastly, I thank all my friends and my family for their love and support. Special thanks are due to my parents, H. P. and L. L., who listedn to endless descriptions and various relevant thoughts of this thesis, encouraged me when I struggled or doubted myself, discussed my hypotheses and methods from their perspectives, and always supported my decisions.

Credit to my friend, J. M., for the cover image.