Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

210 STRATIFICATION AND MOBILITY IN URBAN CHINA
an important role in wealth attainment and status mobility in urban China. In
China, as in many other societies, strategies of entrepreneurialism and wealth
attainment rely heavily on personal social networks. But the dynamism and
uncertainty of opportunities in urban China make personal ties unusually
important, and it is the interplay between personal status and group expectations in
these networks that helps to explain many aspects of the cultural life of the new
rich in urban China.
This chapter will proceed in three sections. The first will define what we mean
by the ‘new rich’ in a mainland Chinese city; and consider their social origins and
status attributes. The second will consider the role of personal networks (social
capital), in particular friendship networks, in shaping the social life of the new rich,
by establishing boundaries between them and the rest of Chinese society, and by
providing sources of support, information and assistance that are crucial to getting
ahead in present-day urban China. The final section will examine how the values,
lifestyles and consumption patterns of the ‘new rich’ class are shaped and
reproduced through these structures of personal interaction and exchange. In this
way, I hope to show how the ‘culture’ of the new rich emanates from their social
position and social relations. The statistical data used in the following pages was a
random stratified household survey of 1,260 households in urban Beijing
(excluding, that is, the rural counties in Beijing Municipality) conducted by myself
and a Chinese collaborator during May and June 1994. The data that appear here
will be restricted to those below the age of 65 at the time of the survey.
MAKING IT IN CONTEMPORARY BEIJING
The first question we must answer is: who are the new rich in urban China? And
perhaps the best way to introduce the question of who ‘makes it’ in a large Chinese
city such as Beijing is by way of anecdote. An acquaintance, a mid-ranking cadre in
a central government agency, was contacted by an old school friend, a computerstore
owner in Beijing’s ‘silicon valley’, Haidian District. He had plans for a housing
development on the outskirts of the city and was hoping that the agency could be
persuaded to sell him land at a reasonable price in return for a share in the venture
(as well as apartments for the leaders of the agency). The cadre agreed to
approach his most trusted superior with the scheme, and then to introduce the old
school friend to him. To shepherd the scheme through the bureaucracy, close
connections would have to be mobilised while avoiding leaking the scheme to
potential rivals or spoilers. After several months of meetings, mustering contacts,
and persuasion, it appeared that the real-estate venture would go ahead.
This common scene from Beijing suggests some of the main features of
acquiring wealth in present-day China. Entrepreneurs and their backers strive to
survive in an environment where, as well as individual skills and resources, they
often depend on the skills, resources and influence of others–especially access to
bureaucratic influence and reliable information. For, the other feature that this
anecdote illustrates is the nexus between power and profit in Chinese entrepreneurial