Against the backdrop of China’s dynamic social development, this chapter adopts the
research perspective of intersectionality to study institutions and discourses that create,
sustain and legitimise social inequalities. A special focus is placed on the social categories of
class, citizenship and ethnicity and the role of the party-state in their definition and use as
markers of difference and identification. Comparing the Mao era to the post-1978 reform
period, the chapter brings out the salient role played by the party-state, but also the increased
spaces for meaning-making available to social actors in the recent years.