Title: Fei-Ling Wang, Organizing Through Division and Exclusion: China’s Hukou System
Abstract: This work is the first complete study of China's hukou ( ) system.It traces the system back to its origins, highlighting its specific features through comparison, explaining how it operates and their social, economic and political impact.It also analyses the extent to which it has been affected by the reforms.Wang's book is therefore a major contribution to our understanding of a system that has largely escaped attention, particularly in its security aspect as a means of control over targeted people ( , zhongdian renkou), because its operations are considered state secrets.This volume also considers the idea, often spread by Chinese government propaganda and increasingly shared by public opinion in China and abroad, that the hukou only has limited influence nowadays and is heading for extinction.