The Trading Crowd An Ethnography of the Shanghai Stock Market [Paperback]

An anthropological study of the Shanghai stock exchange, first published in 1998.In 1992, an explosion of 'stock fever' hit Shanghai. Ellen Hertz's anthropological study sets the stock market and its players in the context of Shanghai society, and probes the dominant role played by the state, which has yielded a stock market very different from those of the West. She explains the way in which investors and officials construct a 'moral storyline' to make sense of this great structural innovation, identifying a struggle between the big investors, the little investors and the state to control the market.In 1992, an explosion of 'stock fever' hit Shanghai. Ellen Hertz's anthropological study sets the stock market and its players in the context of Shanghai society, and probes the dominant role played by the state, which has yielded a stock market very different from those of the West. She explains the way in which investors and officials construct a 'moral storyline' to make sense of this great structural innovation, identifying a struggle between the big investors, the little investors and the state to control the market.In 1992, an explosion of stock fever hit Shanghai. Ellen Hertz's anthropological study sets the stock market and its players in the context of Shanghai society, and probes the dominant role played by the state, which has yielded a stock market very different from those of the West. She explains the way in which investors and officials construct a moral storyline to make sense of this great structural innovation, identifying a struggle among the big investors, the little investors and the state to control the market.Introduction: ways and means; Part I: 1. First contact; 2. The Shanghai stock market and the tributary state; 3. Stock fever; 4. City people, stock people; Part II: 5. The big players; 6. The dispersed players; 7. 'Guojia': the rise and fall of a super-player; 8. Conclusion: the trading crowd; Afterwords; Glossary of Chinese terms; BibliolÈ