Corruption, Masculinity, and Jianghu Ideology in the PRC
Corruption, Masculinity, and Jianghu Ideology in the PRC
This chapter examines the ways in which networks of entrepreneurs and government officials in the contemporary PRC draw from jianghu ideology and China’s fictive brotherhood tradition to frame their relationships and to situate their often illicit activities. It argues that the moral greyness and uncertainty of business in the first few decades of the reform period resembled that of traditional jianghu occupations. These alliances between businessmen, government officials, and gangsters, which draw from these cultural ideologies of masculinity, constitute the basic underpinnings of corruption in China and are formed through practices of banqueting, drinking, and group carousing. However, given the growing hegemony of the global, cosmopolitan businessman ideal, I predict that these jianghu configurations of masculinity will likely soon return to their traditional place at the margins of Chinese society.
Keywords: Corruption, masculinity, jianghu, China, entrepreneurs, brotherhood
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