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
Biography
Zhang Hui is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Renmin University of China. She gained her PhD at the London School of Economics, UK and has been a visiting scholar at the University of Rome (Sapienza) and University of Warsaw for cross-cultural studies. Her research interests include anthropology of emotion, economic anthropology and urbanisation.
“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 people’s 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
