China’s Wealthy Turning to Spiritualism

Johnson, Ian. Q. and A. : John Osburg on China’s wealthy turning to spiritualism. Sinosphere : Dispatches from China. The New York Times. 18 décembre 2014. URL : http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/q-and-a-john-osburg-on-chinas-wealthy-turning-to-spiritualism/?_r=0 (Consulté le 20 décembre 2014)

John Osburg, 39, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Rochester, is the author of “Anxious Wealth: Money and Morality Among China’s New Rich,” based on his research in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu. His book paints a rich picture of the complex ways in which men and women try to buy favors and get ahead in business ventures, often by courting government officials at night clubs and often over drinking and sex. And it describes a milieu beset by anxiety over whether their gains can last.

In the first part of an interview, Mr. Osburg discussed how embedded corrupt practices are in China, the prospects for change after President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on graft and why so many rich Chinese are emigrating. In this second part, he discusses his latest research on the surprising turn that many of China’s new rich have made toward Tibetan Buddhism and other forms of spiritual fulfillment:

Q. You would think that as people get richer they’d get more sophisticated. But you found this isn’t the case.

A. I saw that many people do aspire to sophisticated tastes and a more fulfilling lifestyle than banqueting and drinking in nightclubs, but often they were doing business with those who didn’t share their tastes. You might try to serve a relatively obscure California wine that might be one hundred times better than some Bordeaux, but you run the risk of having the government official you’re hosting think you’re being cheap and not respecting his position. So to play it safe you’ve got to serve Lafitte or Mouton or some winery he’s heard of.

But there’s no question that tastes are evolving, albeit somewhat slowly. Now that every Shanxi coal baron’s mistress can afford Louis Vuitton, in order to differentiate themselves, other new rich are moving on to other pursuits and tastes.

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Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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