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

THE MAKING OF THE PHILIPINES’ NEW RICH 297
not, in some cases, without serious ruction. Notwithstanding the entrance of some
elements of the new rich into the social and cultural domain of the old, many more,
especially those of more limited means, continue to be excluded through such
means as gossip and ostracism, some of which is communicated in the social
pages of the daily newspapers. 36
While all of this might suggest a cultural victory for the old elite, that would be
misleading. Many new rich reject or only conditionally accept the high cultural
authority of the old elite. Indeed, like the younger generation of that elite, they are also
subject to global fashion trends whose main arbiters are located outside the
Philippines. When I asked one Filipino-Chinese how the owners of the plastic grass
would respond to the ridicule it aroused among some Filipino intellectuals, she
responded that they probably would not care. Indeed, for many Filipino-Chinese,
the high cultural authority of the old mestizo and Spanish elite is to some degree
rivalled or diminished by a deference to the idea of Chinese civilisation. And while
some new-rich Chinese houses may be regarded as kitsch in reference to the
architectural standards of the old elite in the Philippines, it may be that their aesthetic
logic rests in this rival cultural tradition. Furthermore, criticisms of ostentation and
conspicuous consumption levelled against the younger generation of Filipino-
Chinese have been framed not only in terms of old-rich sensibilities. Over much of
the 1980s and 1990s an austerity campaign was waged within the Filipino-Chinese
community calling for a return to the ethos of frugality and diligence associated
with successes of first-generation Chinese migrants (Chua 1988a; See 1990:84—93).
The fundamental weakness in the high-culture claims of the old elite is their
association with economic backwardness and national humiliation. Moreover, not
only have many of the old elite family names been tainted by this association, but
the public listing of many old family companies on the stock exchange, as well as
their increased professionalisation through the employment of non-family
members, may further undermine the capacities of these families to command
symbolic pride of place in the refashioned elite. While sections of the established
intelligentsia and artistic community are vocal in their denunciation of the tastes
and lifestyle of the new rich, some young business people and professionals with
backgrounds in the old elite, are more interested in embracing the government’s
liberal developmental ideology, and the work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit which
they associate with the new rich. 37 But some also distinguish between those new
rich they believe can be described in these terms, and others they dismiss as
simply being, in the words of one businessman, like ampaw (puffed rice).
CONCLUSION
The emergence of the new rich in the Philippines is testimony to the country’s
continued capitalist transformation. That transformation has undoubted economic
and structural qualities, which tie the Philippines to the region and to the movements
of global capital, and which largely explain the positional character of the new rich
as capitalists and new middle class. However, there is much to this transformation