Australian Centre on China in the World, the Australian National University
Date: Friday 30 October 2020
Time: 3:00 – 4.00 pm AEDT
This online event is free and open to the public. Join the Meeting Here:
Zoom details: https://anu.zoom.us/j/84164116387?pwd=ZXVPMVFZeGZIbitnbndSNGZ2Q1doQT09
Meeting ID: 841 6411 6387
Password: 493933
The brunt of my research is about making sense of the rich in contemporary China. First, I intend to examine the Chinese rich in a both theoretical and historical context. Second, influenced by an inductive research methodology best known as “grounded theory”, and also inspired by Erwin Goffman’s “dramaturgical sociology” or everyday life micro-sociological approach, my future fieldwork data will be collected in a variety of forms, including informal discussions, formal interviews, on-site observations/participant observation, and even media content analysis. Meanwhile, Bourdieu’s concept of “habitus” and his seminal work “Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste” have helped me develop many ways in which I can lead my discussions and interviews in my fieldwork. In Chinese society, we can clearly see that the rich have become strong “opinion leaders” and “norm setters” both through their own lifestyles and through the promotion of social media platforms. Therefore, by looking into the rich in China from a past and present point of view, I hope to better comprehend the social fabric of the Chinese society as a whole.
About the speaker
Xuanjing Wang is a PhD scholar at the School of Culture, History & Language, College of Asia & the Pacific, The Australian National University.