September29, Unirule Salon for Young Scholars was held at Unirule Office in Beijing.
Unirule was delighted to have Professor Carsten Herrmann-Pillath, famous economist and sinologist from Witten/Herdecke University, to speak on “Economic Culture and Ritual Economy in China.” In his presentation, he combed through the traditional thinking on China’s economic traditions. Many believed China is in “transition”, either from planned economy to market economy, or from the government regulations to market order. The traditional thinking of dualism has limited alternative approaches to understanding the Chinese economy. Professor Herrmann-Pillath though the medium range theories from sociology provided very useful analytical framework for understanding the multi-faceted economy. And the key element in Chinese economy is ritual. Ritual is the central term in defining traditional Chinese culture. It is also a theoretical term in the context of social theory. However, he though FEI Xiaotong, famous Chinese sociologist, limited his analysis based on ritual to the rural areas. Professor Herrmann-Pillath thought ritual’s application was way bigger. Five aspects were mentioned. Firstly, the cognitive foundations have resulted in experimentalism and localism as defining features of policy making in China; secondly, ‘Modernization’ is transformation of gouvernementalité, hence primacy of the political domain and The core process in Chinese economic transformation is state-building; thirdly, Professor Herrmann-Pillath identifies “modernism” as the core principle of Chinese culturalism in the 20th and 21st centuries; fourthly, status orders are essential for market governance in all economic systems, and in China, the status order emerges from the interaction between modernism and political structure; and lastly, networks and social capital formation are essential aspects of traditional ritual.
Professor SHENG Hong commented that ritual in the traditional sense is more important than the notion of “kindness”. It consists a series of conduct code and principles and is one of the two institutions of human world, namely, the invisible institutions and the visible institutions. It provides a very useful alternative approach to understanding the Chinese economy.
Professor FENG Xingyuan commented that the presentation emphasised the importance of mostly ignored ritual as a paradigm to understand Chinese economic affairs. However, the key notion of ritual needed more scrutiny in order to be a more powerful instrument for analysis.
In the Q&A, views on the ritual as a notion, and the ritual economy as a analytical framework with its applications, were exchanged and discussed.
Unirule Saloon for Young Scholars from the East and the West is an open and free platform for academic discussion; it encompasses a wide range of social, economic, political and cultural topics; held once a month, the working language of the saloon is English.
