The New Middle Class in China: Consumption, Politics and the Market Economy

237 Pages·2014·3.307 MB·English

by  Eileen Yuk-Ha Tsang (auth.)

THE NEW MIDDLE CLASS
IN CHINA
Consumption, Politics
and the Market Economy
EILEEN YUK-HA TSANG
The New Middle Class in China
Frontiers of Globalization Series
Series Editor: Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Professor of Sociology, University of
California, Santa Barbara, US.
Titles include:
Sashi Nair
SECRECY AND SAPPHIC MODERNISM
Writing Romans àClef Between the Wars
Shanta Nair-Venugopal
THE GAZE OF THE WEST AND FRAMINGS OF THE EAST
Jan Neverdeen Pieterse and Boike Rehbein (editors)
GLOBALIZATION AND EMERGING SOCIETIES
Development and Inequality
Boike Rehbein (editor)
GLOBALIZATION AND INEQUALITY IN EMERGING SOCIETIES
Eileen Yuk-Ha Tsang
THE NEW MIDDLE CLASS IN CHINA
Consumption, Politics and the Market Economy
Frontiers of Globalization Series
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The New Middle Class in
China
Consumption, Politics and the Market
Economy
Eileen Yuk-Ha Tsang
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
© Eileen Yuk-Ha Tsang 2014
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-0-230-35444-9
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First published 2014 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-34645-5 ISBN 978-1-137-29744-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137297440
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For my parents
Contents
List of Figure and Tables viii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction: China Engages a Middle-Class Society in the 1
21st Century?
Chapter 1 (Re) Framing Class Theories: Class Analysis in 18
Post-Reform China
Chapter 2 Class Boundaries of the Old Generation of the 55
Chinese New Middle Class
Chapter 3 Generational Effects in the Chinese New Middle Class 85
Chapter 4 GuanxiNetworks and the Chinese New Middle Class 119
Chapter 5 Class Formation and Political Development 153
Conclusion: A China in the Making with a New Middle 174
Class?
Appendices
Appendix 1 Research Questions to Interview the Chinese 183
New Middle Class
Appendix 2 Detailed Profiles of the Chinese New Middle Class 186
Appendix 3 Casenotes of Chen Xitong 198
Appendix 4 Casenotes of Ching Cheong 200
Notes 201
Bibliography and Citations 205
Index 223
vii
List of Figure and Tables
Figure
3.1 Recent growth in consumer spending of selected categories 86
Tables
I.1 Selection criteria for samples as the Chinese new middle class 11
1.1 Modified Goldthorpean class scheme for the Chinese 27
new middle class
1.2 Milestone events in the People’s Republic of China 48
4.1 Land allocation by different land-leasing methods 139
viii
Preface
This is a story of my research journey. And like all research, it begins
with the researcher and the interviewees.
A researcher’s interest in a certain phenomenon goes quite a long way
in shaping the initial conception of what the research study is about.
How that interest is framed necessarily reflects a particular vantage point
taken by the researcher and reflects his or her interests, destinations and
motivations. Steier (1991: 1) has been enlightening in this respect: ‘What
I describe in my research is in no way existent apart from my involve-
ment in it – it is not “out there”’.
Since around the 1990s, the ‘Chinese new middle class’ has attracted
considerable attention. State socialist countries have undergone vary-
ing degrees of economic and political reform in recent years and these
have undoubtedly aroused concerns over their formation and their
reach and impact and their consequences for society. Highly visible are
the growing numbers of the Chinese new middle class, who are seen to
have an obvious enthusiasm in leading an affluent way of life by way
of status symbols such as owning brand-named products and expens-
ive automobiles.
My own interest for the purposes of this study is the growing groups
of increasingly influential people who are viewed as the ‘Chinese new
middle class’: regional party cadres, entrepreneurs and professionals in
today’s post-reform China.
Research is ‘primarily about discovering new knowledge’ (Gilbert
1993: 33; Kwong 2001) in an unknown territory. The research process
involves, to a greater or lesser degree, a continual interaction of ideas
and that interaction may drive the work in unexpected directions
(Roberts 1981; Kwong 2001). On the first leg of my research journey,
I had crude ideas of the direction and the terrain of the research land-
scape before me. My attention had been drawn to the ways of living
and consumerist behaviour of newly rich groups in contemporary
China in general and in Guangdong province in particular. However, I
would not be able to plan too far ahead. I took my ‘researcher self’
in the research process as seriously as practicable. I wanted to research
into something that I wanted to know and was going through myself.
And this has motivated me to settle on my long research journey, despite
ix
x Preface
the sometimes clear and present twists and turns in the research process,
which should be regarded as ‘mistakes’ by design.
Over the past few years, I had surveyed the body of literature on a
wide but related range of topics: the indigenisation of the middle class
and the consumption patterns and lifestyles of the Chinese new middle
class. Meanwhile, I kept close connections with various members of
the Chinese new middle class whom I have interviewed. It transpired
quite early on that my preliminary perspective rested on some research
questions and assumptions.
One preliminary assumption is that cultural differences have been
grossly amplified to the extent of reinforcing cultural stereotypes by
some cultural sociologists. Culture and meanings are embodied in the
way a person sees, thinks, interprets and values. The connection between
theories and practice is far more complex than I had at first thought.
I wanted to take the various theories and link them up one way or
another with real-world class practices by means of interviewing the
Chinese new middle class in Guangdong province: they should speak
for themselves about their own lifestyles and consumption habits. The
Chinese new middle class had sprung into existence in Chinese society
and their sudden arrival appears to have important implications (albeit
yet to be determined) for the new social stratification and social inequality
in mainland China. Producing a description of the quality of lived experi-
ence is inadequate and insufficient. Increasingly obvious to me is this
point: what is most important to our understanding is to describe the
meanings hidden behindthe lived experience and the value that they have
to the actors. The product, therefore, is a constructed text of human
actions, behaviours, intentions and experiences in the actors’ life-world.
Theoretical frameworks and empirical data are of paramount impor-
tance to me since they provide a guiding thread to a more comprehensive
framework to better understand the empirical setting of the development
of China under the dual influence of economic reform and globalisation.
Even so, my own experience as a researcher tells me that more concrete
practices, unfettered access to fieldsites in Guangdong and the personal
quality to get along well with people are usually more important in the
field. These aspects are especially important in a place like China where
conservatism and reserve are still the norm and many of the Chinese new
middle class are wary of accepting the approach of a researcher to con-
duct in-depth interviews. Theories and practice are complementary part-
ners (or at least they should be) to understand the peculiarities and
idiosyncrasies of the Chinese new middle class in Guangdong province
(Kwong 2001).