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

CULTURAL RELATIONS AND THE NEW RICH 47
the new rich in Asia have emerged, have been complex and variegated. While it is
useful for the purposes of this volume to make a broad distinction between the global
and local, this is clearly a major simplification.
17 These issues have been the subject of a growing volume of literature: see for example
Smith 1981; Friedman 1990; Featherstone 1990, 1995; Appadurai 1991, 1996; Foster
1991; Hall 1992; Gupta 1992; Robertson 1992, 1995; Hannerz 1992, 1996; Basch et al.
1994; Kearney 1995; Tønnesson and Antlöv 1996; Grossberg 1997.
18 Further reference to other chapters in this book will be made simply by listing the
authors’ names.
19 Because of its earlier industrialisation and prosperity, this chapter deals only
minimally with Japan.
20 Note, for instance, the increasing interest in listing and profiling Asia’s growing
number of tycoons in the pages of journals such as the Far Eastern Economic
Review and Asiaweek, and books such as Yoshihara (1988), Ch’ng (1993) and
Hiscock (1997).
21 This was more clear-cut in the Chinese status order than in Indian caste, and nor
were these ideologies uncontested (on caste, see Appadurai 1986). In China attitudes
to commerce varied between classes and regions, as Skinner points out in relation
to the early Sino-Thais, whose ethos was more that of the merchant, than was the
case with the Thai elite who looked upon commerce with disdain (1957:93—5, 306).
On a similar stance of the Japanese samurai towards commerce, see Sheldon (1958:
31—2).
22 See also note 20.
23 Post-Fordism, also called ‘flexible accumulation’, refers to a system of economic
organisation in which labour processes, labour markets, product designs and
consumption patterns are not rigidly structured and centrally controlled in the ways
that were associated with Fordism, but rather are flexibly configured in ways which
allow capital to be more immediately responsive to rapidly changing conditions and
opportunities (Harvey 1989:147—88).
24 Much of the discussion here centres on the so-called practice of rent seeking. See
note 3.
25 What I have in mind here are a series of layered ideologies, rhetorics and modes of
identification which are variously called into play in the context of identity politics.
This framework thus differs, for example, from the more definitive world civilisations
model found in Huntington (1996).
26 It should be noted that critics of these propositions also come from within the region
as well as from outside (see Young).
27 The growth of the fashion and retail industries in the region appears to have provided
many women with the opportunities to become successful capitalists. For more on
gender and the new rich, see Sen and Stivins (1998).
28 See for example Berger and Hsiao (1988), Tai (1989a), Clegg and Redding (1990),
Redding (1990), Berger (1991) and Weinshall (1993). Clearly students at such
colleges are also exposed to managerial perspectives based on neo-classical
economic principles. The pedagogical weight given to these different perspectives,
and the influence they have on students from the region, would make for interesting
research.
29 See also Gosling (1983) and Lim (1992).