Public goods, piety and place: The legitimation strategies of local business elites in China

This chapter will examine the legitimation 1 strategies of business elites in three different parts of China: coastal, central and the West. This chapter paints a broad picture of local business elite formation in Yunnan, Anhui and Fujian provinces, and examines how these elites establish - or attempt to establish - legitimacy in order to secure and justify their power in the local community, thus establishing their symbolic capital in the eyes of both the rulers and the ruled. 2 There are many strategies, but in this chapter I will focus on two common approaches towards establishing legitimacy: elites as the providers of public goods; and as the champions of religion or culture: either as the defenders of traditional culture or as the vanguard of an improved, higher quality culture, what might be termed the development trends of advanced productive forces in the jargon of Jiang Zemin’s ‘Theory of the Three Represents’ (CCP News 2006).