Windfall Wealth and Envy in Contemporary China [Hardcover]

1. Introduction? 2. The public discourse on envy after 1978? 3. Windfall wealth and malicious envy? 4. Admiring envy and coveted wealth? 5. The ethics of avoiding envy and being rich? 6. Luck, fate, auspiciousness, and the changing perceptions of wealth? 7. Transcending envy and the hope for the family? 8. Conclusion: Towards an anthropological theory of envy

In Windfall Wealth and Envy Zhang Hui elucidates not only the emotional but also the ethical and political consequences of sudden economic change. Envy of new wealth may be a universal emotion, but this rich ethnography demonstrates that political economy, in China always transforming, cannot be understood apart from local forms of morality and the social relations and cultural expressions through which collective values are lived. This is a study of the emotions in context that avoids universalist psychologies while opening to the reader a world of feelings, judgments, and strategies.

Judith Farquhar, Max Palevsky Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago

Windfall Wealth and Envy offers a vivid and nuanced analysis of peoples perceptions of wealth. Originated from direct observations and in-depth fieldwork rather than abstract social stratification statistics, the book brings to light the intricate realities and rich complexity of economic inequality in contemporary China.

Professor Jing Jun, Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University, China

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This groundbreaking study examines the cultural manifestations of envy in China during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, a period of unprecedented economic and social change.

Chinas rapid accumulation of wealth  particularly its uneven distribution, which created overnight mill£B