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

228 STRATIFICATION AND MOBILITY IN URBAN CHINA
Clearly guanxi can be used for instrumental purposes, and this usage is
recognised by the members of the society. However, it is referred to as the
art of guanxi, because the style of exchange and the appropriateness of the
performance are critical to its effectiveness. The style and manner of gift
exchange is not optional; rather it is fundamental to its operation. Although a
relationship may be cultivated with instrumental goals foremost in mind, the
forms must be followed if the goals are to be achieved. The relationship
must be presented as primary and the exchanges, useful though they may be,
treated only as secondary.
(Smart 1993:399)
It is against the backdrop of these prevailing practices and expectations, about how
business should be conducted and how wealth should be accumulated, that the
importance of various forms of sociable consumption in the life of China’s ‘new
rich’ becomes intelligible. Karaoke sessions, banquets, even the ubiquitous
exchange of name cards, all provide contexts in which interpersonal trust and
standing can be established and renewed, and the coexistence of ‘instrumental’ and
primary or affective relations confirmed.
Though superficial impressions might suggest otherwise, the material culture
and social interactions of China’s new rich–with the emphasis placed on visible
wealth and consumption–is not entirely an instance of Veblen’s (1979)
conspicuous consumption. Rather, the lifestyle of China’s ‘new rich’ is better
understood as a product of conspicuous conformity in that it shows an underlying
impulse to demonstrate a person’s belonging to a certain status group, a new
moneyed elite, that is still unsure of its social boundaries and its relations with the
rest of Chinese society. Through their lifestyle practices, aspiring members of the
new rich seek to demonstrate, to their peers, colleagues and rivals, their possession
of resources and personal qualities befitting an elite position in Chinese society
(Lamont and Fournier 1992).
CONCLUSION
The rapid growth of China’s economy during the 1980s and 1990s, and the
concomitant rise of a new wealthy class in China’s cities, has inspired, among
other things, a flood of reportage about newly rich entrepreneurs and business
people. In much of this reportage, such as Xie Dehua’s lurid Money, the Crazed
Beast, China’s new rich are depicted as possessed by the wealth they have created
for themselves (Xie 1988). In various forms, this image of exorbitant consumption,
combined with dubious morality and taste, also colours Western descriptions of
China’s new wealthy elite; and with some good reason–the disparities between the
rich and the poor in a country like China make the extravagance and
conspicuousness of the new culture of wealth all the more jarring. But what I have
attempted to show in this chapter is that the culture of the ‘new rich’ is neither
simply wasteful, nor a symptom of psychological insecurity. The cultural identity of