Vanguards of Consumption, Laggards in Politics? The Emergence of a New Middle Class in South China By Eileen Yuk-ha TSANG A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Sociology School of Government and Society The University of Birmingham August 2010 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. CONTENTS Abstract ..................................................................................................................... i Preface .................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .....................................................................................................v Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Pre-reform China at a glance ................................................................................... 2 Post-reform China at a glance ................................................................................... 5 Overview of the thesis .................................................................................. 13 Chapter 1: An intellectual journey: from class theory to class analysis ... 19 Marxist class theories and derivatives .................................................................... 21 Weberian class analysis .......................................................................................... 23 Class ........................................................................................................................ 25 Status ..................................................................................................................... 26 Party ........................................................................................................................ 27 Neo-Weberian class model: John Goldthorpe ........................................................ 29 Bourdieu and the Sociology of cultures ................................................................. 32 Summary ................................................................................................................ 39 Chapter 2: (Re) framing class analysis in post-reform China ................ 42 Conceptualising class: China vs. the West.............................................................. 43 Political capital and other captials in Chinese context ........................................... 47 Hùk ǒu and how it affects the functioning of the Chinese new middle class .......... 51 Dānwei and how it creates differences in work situations of gu ānxi ...................... 58 Land and property restructuring ............................................................................. 61 Generational stratification and the Chinese parent-child relationship ................... 67 Defining the middle class for the purposes of this study ....................................... 72 Summary ................................................................................................................ 77 Chapter 3: Mapping the ethnographic terrain ...................................... 78 Research objectives and research questions ..................................................... 79 Getting inside information with gu ānxi : a problem of research ethics?.................. 87 From interview to text ............................................................................................ 91 The interviewees ..................................................................................................... 94 Entrepreneurs .......................................................................................................... 97 Cadres ..................................................................................................................... 97 Professional ........................................................................................................... 98 Choice of fieldsite ................................................................................................. 99 Summary .............................................................................................................. 107 Chapter 4: Class boundaries of the Chinese new middle class ......... 108 Older generation of the Chinese new middle class .............................................. 109 Factors encouraging pragmatic consumption ....................................................... 112 Collective memories ............................................................................................. 113 Confucian values, self-improvement, class boundary and admission................... 124 Major features of consumption of the older generation ....................................... 127 Entertainment activities ........................................................................................ 128 Tobacco and liquor ............................................................................................... 131 The cultural politics of food and eating ................................................................ 135 Consumption in fashion ........................................................................................ 139 Travel patterns of the older generation ................................................................. 144 Summary .............................................................................................................. 146 Chapter 5: Generational effects in the Chinese new middle class ... 149 The emergence of the consumerism ..................................................................... 150 Geography and spaces of consumption in post-reform China ............................. 153 Rising consumption of branded goods .................................................................. 159 The bar and self commodification......................................................................... 166 Fast food shops vs Chinese restaurants ............................................................... 168 Mobile phones and portable computers ................................................................ 170 Resident preferences and brands of car................................................................. 171 Gender relations or attitudes of the younger generation ....................................... 176 Parent-children relationship between generations................................................. 180 Anxiety and uncertainty over generations............................................................. 185 Summary ............................................................................................................. 188 Chapter 6: Gu ānxi networks and the Chinese new middle class ..... 190 Gu ānxi as an internalized process in China .......................................................... 191 How the cadres understand gu ānxi ? ..................................................................... 196 The influential role of cadre-entrepreneurship ..................................................... 199 Special businesses ................................................................................................. 223 The privileges of cadre-entrepreneurship.............................................................. 231 Limit of gu ānxi networks for the younger generation........................................... 231 Summary ............................................................................................................. 234 Chapter 7: Middle class culture and political development .............. 234 Reconceptualising the Chinese middle class culture ............................................ 235 The middle class culture of the older generation .................................................. 236 The middle class culture of the younger generation ............................................. 238 A Chinese middle class culture in the making ..................................................... 243 Debate on Chinese political development ............................................................ 246 Summary ............................................................................................................. 256 Chapter 8: Conclusion? ........................................................................ 258 Contributions of the study .................................................................................... 265 Bibliography and citations ................................................................... 268 Glossaries and abbreviations ............................................................... 298 Appendices ............................................................................................. 325 Appendix 1: Research questions to interview the Chinese new middle class....... 325 Appendix 2: General profile for the Chinese new middle class in Guangdong.....328 Appendix 3: Caselaw of Chen