This paper examines the influence of family human capital on offspring’s economic status in
post reform rural China by concentrating on the father-son relationship. We focus on two
indicators of family background: family class origin (jiating chengfen) and occupational
experience. The results of a family wealth function for 2002 suggest that, after controlling for
other individual and family characteristics, both measures of family background have a
significant influence on family wealth. First, parental experience of a nonagricultural family
business before collectivization has a positive and statistically significant effect on current
family wealth. Second, the offspring of landlord/rich peasant and middle peasant families are
more likely to have higher family wealth than poor and lower-middle peasant families. We
also find cohort and regional differences in the influence of family background. Our findings
suggest that the strength and robustness of the Chinese rural family as a cultural institution
preserves family human capital across radical institutional changes.