Student~ interested in world populations and demography inevitably need to know China. As the most populous country of the world, China occupies a unique position in the world population system. How its population is shaped by the intricate interplays among factors such as its political ideology and institutions, economic reality, government policies, sociocultural traditions, and ethnic divergence represents at once a fascinating and challenging arena for investigatIon and analysis. Yet, for much of the 20th century, while population studies have developed into a mature science, precise information and sophisticated analysis about the Chinese population had largely remained either lacking or inaccessible, first because of the absence of systematic databases due to almost uninterrupted strife and wars, and later because the society was closed to the outside observers for about three decades since 1949. Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, things have dramatically changed. China has embarked on an ambitious reform program where modernization became the utmost goal of societal mobilization. China could no longer afford to rely on imprecise census or survey information for population-related studies and policy planning, nor to remaining closed to the outside world. Both the gathering of more precise information and access to such information have dramatically increased in the 1980s. Systematic observations, analyses and reporting about the Chinese population have surfaced in the population literature around the globe.

I Introduction: Population and Population Studies in China.- New China's Population.- Population Studies in China: Privileged Past, Anxious Future.- II Size, Growth and Distribution.- A Brief History of China's Population.- Population Dynamics and Policy in China.- Distribution of Chinese Population.- III International Migration.- The Distribution of the Overseas Chinese.- The Old Chinatown Ghettos.- IV Mortality.- China's Changing Mortality.- Famine in China, 1958-61.- V Fertility, Abortion and Contraceptive Trends.- Fertility Trends in China.- Abortion in China: Incidence and Implications.- Patterns of Contraceptive Use in China.- VI Fertility Differentials.- Local Area Variations in Reproductive Behavior in China, 1973-1982.- Socioeconomic Development, Family Planning and Fertility in China: A Subregional Analysis.- VII Fertility Policy.- Fertility Policy in China: Future Options.- Second Thoughts on the Second Child: A Talk with Peng Peiyun.- Effects of the One-Child Policy on the Children of China.- VIII Age and Sex Structure.- The Age-Sex Structure of Modern China: A Graphic Description and Explanation.- Implications of the Aging of China's Population.- Sex Preference, Fertility and Family Planning in China.- IX Marriage and Family.- Marriage in China Since 1950.- Changes in Family Structure in China.- X Ethnic Composition.- Ethnic Diversity and Distribution.- The Demographic and Socioeconomic Composition of China's Ethnic Minorities.- Ethnic Identification in China.- XI Internal Migration and Urbanization.- Migration in China: Methodological and Policy Challenges.- Urbanization in China: New Insights from the 1982 Census.- Provincial Population Size and Interprovincial Migration.- XII Epilogue: China in 1990.- Glossary: David Yaukey.- Author Index.