In The Chinese Worker Dr. Hoffmann evaluates the Chinese revolution by examining its effects on China's workers. He describes the country's ideological and economic setting since the advent of the present regime and analyzes the results of the changing structure of the work force in terms of changes in employment, unemployment, and productivity. He discusses labor allocation and the horizontal and vertical mobility of workers, the role of trade unions in the management of labor, and the material well-being and quality of life which the Chinese worker enjoys today.

Dr. Hoffmann concludes that in the twenty-odd years since the Chinese Communist Party established its authority over the mainland, the Chinese worker, despite ideological differences and power struggles between the Maoists and their adversaries, has begun to display the initial characteristics of the ultimate Communist human being: self-reliance, political acuity, and social commitment. The outcome of this adjustment to a more egalitarian environment has been a gradual internalization of the desired values of communism on a national scale. The worker in China is responding to social motivation while conventional individualistic, material incentives have become de-emphasized. This has resulted in some closing of social and economic gaps between workers and peasants; an increased participation in the processes of factory innovation, design, and decision making on the part of the worker; and higher levels of living for all workers.

Dr. Hoffmann's recent trips to Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China have provided him with new material which has not yet been published in the United States. He presents the different facets of China's work force through descriptive analysis in which quantitative data are used whenever possible.