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From the article: "It’s a trait shared by elite families in China, whose high status has persisted since the Mao years." https://qz.com/314720/heres-the-surpr

• throwaway5393 8y ago
  Thanks for the article! This is fascinating and I will look into their paper more, but on a quick glance, I wonder about their methodology here: > The authors identified 13 surnames that appear with unusual frequency in the Qin examination system—the Chinese test to identify who will become a member of the highest elite in the country, the state bureaucracy. They selected them from more than 50,000 successful candidates (the most successful) in the Yuan, Ming, and Qin dynasties, starting in 221 BCE (we are talking China). These surnames are overrepresented in the modern imperial era and in modern Chinese elites—the high officials in the Nationalist government from 1912 to the triumph of the communists in 1949; professors at the ten most prestigious universities in the country in 2012; chairs of the boards of companies listed in 2006 as having assets of $1.5 million and above; and members of the (still communist) central government administration in 2010. It is my understanding that while the Chinese do have a variety of surnames, they are often based on region. Not to mention, the 3 surnames "Wang, Li, and Zhang" are attributed to almost 30% of Chinese people.