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In Search of Paradise: Middle Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis
By: Li Zhang, 2010
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Abstract
In Search of Paradise: Middle Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis
- A new revolution in homeownership and living has been sweeping the booming cities of China. This time the main actors on the social stage are not peasants, migrants, or working-class proletariats but middle-class professionals and entrepreneurs in search of a private paradise in a society now dominated by consumerism.
- No longer seeking happiness and fulfillment through collective sacrifice and socialist ideals, they hope to find material comfort and social distinction in newly constructed gated communities. This quest for the good life is profoundly transforming the physical and social landscapes of urban China.
Abstract
In Search of Paradise: Middle Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis
- Li Zhang, who is from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, turns a keen ethnographic eye on her hometown. She combines her analysis of larger political and social issues with fine-grained details about the profound spatial, cultural, and political effects of the shift in the way Chinese urban residents live their lives and think about themselves.
- In Search of Paradise is a deeply informed account of how the rise of private homeownership is reconfiguring urban space, class subjects, gender selfhood, and ways of life in the reform era.
Abstract
In Search of Paradise: Middle Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis
- New, seemingly individualistic lifestyles mark a dramatic move away from yearning for a social utopia under Maoist socialism. Yet the privatization of property and urban living have engendered a simultaneous movement of public engagement among homeowners as they confront the encroaching power of the developers.
- This double movement of privatized living and public sphere activism, Zhang finds, is a distinctive feature of the cultural politics of the middle classes in contemporary China. Theoretically sophisticated and highly accessible, Zhang's account will appeal not only to those interested in China but also to anyone interested in spatial politics, middle-class culture, and postsocialist governing in a globalizing world.
Introduction
In Search of Paradise: Middle Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis
- This book is a significant contribution to the growing literature on the Chinese middle class and the ongoing process of urbanization. By weaving these two crucially important topics together in an ethnography of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, Li Zhang provides a comprehensive picture of what she terms “spatialization of class”—a cultural and economic process which is simultaneously transforming the physical landscape of urban China and giving rise to new and visibly segregated social groups.
- The issues of homeownership and the reshaping cityscapes provide a fruitful perspective to study class formation, the struggle for social distinction and new politics of urban property.
Analysis
In Search of Paradise: Middle Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis
- After introducing the main topics of her study, Zhang proceeds with a historical depiction of China’s housing revolution. During the reform era the state shifted from a comprehensive urban system of welfare housing towards increasing commercialization.
- This process is also described as “late and post-socialist primitive accumulation,” (p.27) as it entails the expropriation of previous owners to the benefit of government-connected developers in the real estate business.
- Zhang applies an ethnographic approach to examine at close range the dynamics of the local real estate sector bringing to light the many contradictions inherent in its operation.
Analysis
In Search of Paradise: Middle Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis
- Next she analyzes the emerging landscapes of living themselves: the construction of middle-class dream houses, the lifestyle package sold together with a house that transcends obvious differences in architectural styles, and the economy of fear exemplified by ubiquitous security guards and surveillance devices securing gated communities.
- Again, she points out the fine ironies such as the fact that those building, remodeling, and guarding the “middle class paradise,” stem from the same social group deemed most dangerous by homeowners, namely young rural men. Other contradictions arise from shifting boundaries between private and public, as can be seen from conflicts over the use of park-like leisure spaces in or around the living compounds.
Analysis
In Search of Paradise: Middle Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis
- These new living environments come in a clearly stratified hierarchy ranging from the luxurious “villas” or “gardens” housing the newly rich, to the simple “wage-based communities” (gongxin xiaoqu) of the lower middle class.
- Zhang elaborates how selfrealization is closely linked to appropriate consumption. At the same time, what is considered appropriate remains a matter of considerable contention. Social desires and status aspirations are cunningly exploited by real estate companies, for instance by advertising a community as a way to buy into a certain class.
- Thus, units in projects promising an advanced “cultural milieu” are commonly bought by entrepreneurs and merchants, who are still often regarded as possessing little cultural capital (p.131).
Analysis
In Search of Paradise: Middle Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis
- The flipside of this spatial transformation is the dispossession of former residents in city centers or “accumulation by displacement.” Zhang traces the contention of property owners in Kunming in their resistance against developers who often collude with district governments to push them out of the urban core in order to realize its high profit potential.
- Although legal protection of these property rights have improved in recent years, most Chinese metropolises have already undergone profound re-spatialization of class, in which inner-city residents had to make way for highervalue housing for the better endowed social strata.
Analysis
In Search of Paradise: Middle Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis
- These developments also have significant repercussions for the way Chinese urbanites perceive themselves and others. Zhang argues that homeownership has become a key component for constructing masculinity in contemporary China.
- Conversely, femininity is increasingly defined by physical appearance. A woman’s possession of a house may even give rise to insecurity and feelings of inadequacy on the part of a (potential) spouse. Thus, notions of “marriageability” have undergone considerable change.
Analysis
In Search of Paradise: Middle Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis
- Finally, Zhang also discusses new forms of urban governance related to the housing revolution, in particular the privatization of governing functions. By providing a whole array of public services, real estate companies assume the role of a local authority, while local governments try to stay aloof from grassroots politics.
- The latter involve homeowner self-organization and “rights protection” (weiquan) against developers and property management companies, which often take advantage of their privileged position. Zhang characterizes the resulting new version of urban governance as a mixture of authoritarian and neoliberal repertoires of rule.
Analysis
In Search of Paradise: Middle Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis
- This fine-grained analysis of urban China’s homeownership revolution is based on impressive ethnographic fieldwork.
- Moreover, Zhang consistently places her findings in both the national and theoretical contexts.
- It is a must-read for anyone studying social change in urban China.
