The Development of China`s Socialist Entrepreneurs: An Ethnographic Study in the Pearl River Delta Region

Abstract

Over the past decade, China’s economy has moved in a new direction as the non-state-owned sector has grown stronger. During this process, two mutually affected phenomena have crystallized: the traditional rank-ordered social structure, although still predominant, is now complemented by an emerging class-ordered structure; and a group of “socialist entrepreneurs” is in the making.\nIn this paper, I will expand upon the questions asked in Iván Szelényi’s thesis regarding the following: How has it been possible for entrepreneurs to reemerge in China after the latter was under socialist transformation for almost thirty years? Who are these emerging socialist entrepreneurs? What is their relationship with socialist China? Why does the Chinese state claim its economic reform has produced a “socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics”? With these questions in mind, the author conducted in-depth interviews with these entrepreneurs in hoping to define this group of people, hence establishing dialogue with researchers who are exploring similar subjects.