Inherited time and the uneven paths of educational mobility: A review of Cora Lingling Xu's The Time Inheritors

This review examines The Time Inheritors: How Time Inequalities Shape Higher Education Mobility in China by Cora Lingling Xu, a book that offers a conceptually rich and empirically grounded analysis of time as a structuring force in educational inequality. Drawing on nearly a decade of longitudinal and multi-sited fieldwork, Xu develops the concept of ‘time inheritance’ to theorize how temporal privilege or deprivation is transmitted across generations. The review highlights the book's contributions in several areas: the empirical depth and narrative sensitivity of its account of temporal inequality in China across multiple levels; its conceptualization of time inheritance and its extension of Bourdieu's theory of capital; and its reframing of educational mobility as temporal repositioning. Situating the book within broader discussions of time, modernity, and acceleration, the review suggests future directions for theorizing time inheritance in light of institutional pacing, shifting global conditions, and comparative contexts. Xu's work opens up a generative framework for research on the temporal politics of education and inequality in China and beyond.