You hear a lot in the United States about China these days: While we're occupying Wall Street, they're "taking our jobs" and enjoying a booming economy.

But look a little closer, and you'll see that the so-called 99% exist in China, too (even though we often don't hear their protests). The country's transition to a market economy has left many citizens behind, and rapid growth has created a large, deep gap between rich and poor.

During a recent research trip to China, we saw this inequality in stark relief. "The city folks just get richer, and us peasants just get poorer," we heard time and again in rural areas; between 1985 and 2009, the income gap between urban and rural households increased 118 percent. The country's 55 different ethnic minority groups suffer as well; Mongols, for example, forbidden from their traditional livelihoods, now live on irregular, unreliable, and psychically devastating social support payments from Beijing.

Read the full story in IMTFI Researcher Pantha Lee's article, "The Messy Art of Saving the World: Design for the Marginalized Millions"