致谢：愿此行终抵群星

有一封我很喜欢的致谢这样开篇：

“It was a 15-hour flight from Shanghai to Detroit whe I embarked on my journey at the University of Michigan. The turbulence and my fear of heights, counting the seconds until my arrival, added much weight to the time and distance I crossed. Throughout my studies in the US, I found many parallels to this flight.”

And he thanked all his brave and reliable pilots.

然后回头看看我自己的本科四年，好像其实是高空的盛行西风，快到此时此刻我仍然恍惚于 “已经本科毕业了”。遗憾的部分 (如果必须要有的话)，大概就交给还没来得及上的线性代数和 stats 426, 交给今年暂时没机会去看看的 Princeton 和 Penn.

但我确定的是我的本科生活——至少是做 thesis 这一年半——是无比快乐和幸运的，因为挺不错的收获、更因为一些人。

这一年半让我喜欢上 Michigan Sociology, 所以我期待在这里的下一个七年。

以及，祝我的朋友在芝加哥一切顺利！大概是我从来也不擅长告别，所以会很期待再见。

(毕业季的眼泪大概总是要来的，今年是在写下这些文字的这一刻)

Per Aspera Ad Astra｜愿此行终抵群星

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以下是我的毕业论文致谢：

“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.

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本文首发于小红书。感谢我的朋友 J. M. 提供的封面照片。