Carsten Herrmann-Pillath - Ritual and Economy in Metropolitan China

Ritual and Economy in Metropolitan China is essential background for understanding how traditions modernize within and through global processes. It is essential reading for understanding Shenzhens emergence as Chinas fourth city by making salient how South Chinese villagers repurposed family identities and kinship networks to become successful entrepreneurs.

This is a stimulating study of the cultural underpinnings of urbanisation and economic development in the Peoples Republic of China, using the case-example of the southern metropolis Shenzhen. The authors unusual combination of economic, sociological and anthropological approaches offers novel perspectives for specialists in all these fields, and for scholars in Chinese Studies more generally.

A great deal of social science scholarship on China gets caught up in a false dichotomy of Chinese exceptionalism vs. Western social theory, resulting in studies that focus on either how much China differs from the West or on how China serves as a site where abstract Western theory yields Chinese characteristics on the ground. Ritual and Economy in Metropolitan China is one of those rare and rewarding studies that succeeds in transcending this dichotomy by laying the groundwork for a genuine global social science. Through a rich and highly grounded exploration of ritual practice and the ritual economy in Shenzhen, the authors demonstrate effectively that our taken-for-granted assumptions about social theory can be enriched and broadened by paying some attention to practices in places less heard from in the Western canon. A fascinating account that reaches far beyond the China studies field.

This book focuses on Shenzhen, one of Chinas most globalized metropolises, a leading centre of high-tech industries and, as a melting pot of migrants from all over China, a place of vibrant cultural creativity. While in the early stages of Shenzhens development this vibrant cultural creativity was associated with the resilience of traditional social structures in Shenzhens migrant urban villages, today these structures undergird dynamic entrepreneurship and urban self-organization throughout Shenzhen, and have gradually merged with the formal structures of urban governance and politics. This book examines these developments, showing how important traditional social structures and traditional Chinese culture have been for Chinas economic modernization. The book goes on to draw out the implications of this for the future of Chinese culture and Chinese economic engagement in a globalized world.

Carsten Herrmann-Pillath is a Professor and Permanent Fellow in the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, Erfurt University, Germany

Guo Man is an Associate Research Professor in the School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China

Feng Xingyuan is a Professor and Executive President, Cathay Institute for Public Affairs, Beijing, China

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First published 2021

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2021 Carsten Herrmann-Pillath, Guo Man and Feng Xingyuan

The right of Carsten Herrmann-Pillath, Guo Man and Feng Xingyuan to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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ISBN: 978-1-138-39197-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-42243-0 (ebk)

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China has been emerging as a world economic power and is increasingly perceived as a systemic challenge to advanced Western economies. For decades now, economists have pondered what the peculiar features of the socialism or market economy with Chinese characteristics are. This includes fundamental questions such as whether China is socialist or capitalist, or whether it represents a new systemic type, often labelled state Chinese Communist Party maintains the rhetoric of reforms and transformation even after 40 years of permanent institutional change, one difficulty seems that almost all features of the system may prove to be transient. However, there are elements which are beyond dispute, for political and ideological reasons, barring a collapse of One-Party rule, such as the pivotal role of state ownership in certain industries. Yet, how these features interact with other elements of the system remains difficult to assess, and after all, the precise nature of the interaction between party, state, and society is just at the heart of the troubles in dealing with the perceived systemic challenge.

This book focuses on one apparently defining feature, land ownership and its economic, social, and cultural ramifications in the megacity of Shenzhen: In socialist China, land is publicly owned, in two forms, collective ownership in rural areas and state ownership in urban areas. Hence, urbanization of rural areas comes along with complex changes in the structure of