From parvenu to “highbrow” tastes: the rise of cultural capital in China’s intergenerational elites

Gordon C. Li

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: A new generation of elites distinguished by their cultural endowments has emerged in China. Unlike the older generation of elites who signaled status through the display of wealth but shared similar tastes, the new generation of cultured elites has sophisticated, often Western-oriented “highbrow” tastes in their cultural consumption. By comparing the upbringings and the tastes of interviewees from various backgrounds, this study suggests a widening taste-chasm between the elites and the underclasses in urban cities. The social process behind this is argued to be the rapid formation of cultural capital in China, in which parental privileges accumulated in the market economy converted into cultural privileges in the new generation of new elites.

Keywords: China; cultural capital; cultural consumption; intergenerational mobility; music taste (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2021-06-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna
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Published in British Journal of Sociology, 1, June, 2021, 72(3), pp. 514 - 530. ISSN: 0007-1315

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:110737

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