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Introduction: Global Markets, Local Bodies

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Markets and Bodies
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Each day, scores of international professionals traveling to Beijing disembark from cocoon- like fi rst- class cabins of jetliners arriving from Eu rope, North America, and Australia. Th e most affl uent of these pro-fessionals board limousines for the Beijing Transluxury Hotel.1 Groggy and disoriented after the long fl ight, the well- heeled itinerants are re-ceived by butlers in the genial space of the Transluxury lobby. Th e but-lers greet the new arrivals by name and lead them to graciously appointed guest rooms designed to evoke the warmth of a residence, with over-stuff ed comforters and low- slung lighting, as well as linens, carpets, and upholsteries in rich hues of chestnut and hunter green. With English- speaking staff , familiar Western foods, and cable TV piping in Ameri-can sitcoms, the BBC, CNN, and ESPN, these global professionals can imagine that they have never left home, or that they have entered a new and improved version of it, insulated from the dust, noise, and crowds churning outside. Th e Beijing Transluxury and hotels like it are staging areas for forays into the new economic and po liti cal landscape of China, and they re- create home for entrepreneurs, diplomats, and politicians in unfamiliar terrain.Just over a mile away from the hotel, Limei, a waitress at the Trans-luxury, awakes at 5:00 a.m. in her parents’ two- room section of a ram-shackle courtyard house. In the morning she uses iron tongs to place a IntroductionGlobal Markets, Local Bodies
© 2020 Stanford University Press, Redwood City

Each day, scores of international professionals traveling to Beijing disembark from cocoon- like fi rst- class cabins of jetliners arriving from Eu rope, North America, and Australia. Th e most affl uent of these pro-fessionals board limousines for the Beijing Transluxury Hotel.1 Groggy and disoriented after the long fl ight, the well- heeled itinerants are re-ceived by butlers in the genial space of the Transluxury lobby. Th e but-lers greet the new arrivals by name and lead them to graciously appointed guest rooms designed to evoke the warmth of a residence, with over-stuff ed comforters and low- slung lighting, as well as linens, carpets, and upholsteries in rich hues of chestnut and hunter green. With English- speaking staff , familiar Western foods, and cable TV piping in Ameri-can sitcoms, the BBC, CNN, and ESPN, these global professionals can imagine that they have never left home, or that they have entered a new and improved version of it, insulated from the dust, noise, and crowds churning outside. Th e Beijing Transluxury and hotels like it are staging areas for forays into the new economic and po liti cal landscape of China, and they re- create home for entrepreneurs, diplomats, and politicians in unfamiliar terrain.Just over a mile away from the hotel, Limei, a waitress at the Trans-luxury, awakes at 5:00 a.m. in her parents’ two- room section of a ram-shackle courtyard house. In the morning she uses iron tongs to place a IntroductionGlobal Markets, Local Bodies
© 2020 Stanford University Press, Redwood City

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction: Global Markets, Local Bodies 1
  5. 1 “The Customer Is God”: Women and China’s New Occupational Landscape 36
  6. 2 Virtual Personalism: Importing Global Luxury and Emphasized Femininity to the Beijing Transluxury Hotel 69
  7. 3 Virtuous Professionalism: Localizing Global Luxury at the Kunming Transluxury Hotel 100
  8. 4 Aspirational Urbanism: Consuming Respect in China’s Informal Service Sector 123
  9. 5 Embodying Consumer Markets at Work 152
  10. Afterword: Embodiment, the Research, and the Researcher 171
  11. Notes 177
  12. References 193
  13. Index 209
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804778350-002

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction: Global Markets, Local Bodies 1
  5. 1 “The Customer Is God”: Women and China’s New Occupational Landscape 36
  6. 2 Virtual Personalism: Importing Global Luxury and Emphasized Femininity to the Beijing Transluxury Hotel 69
  7. 3 Virtuous Professionalism: Localizing Global Luxury at the Kunming Transluxury Hotel 100
  8. 4 Aspirational Urbanism: Consuming Respect in China’s Informal Service Sector 123
  9. 5 Embodying Consumer Markets at Work 152
  10. Afterword: Embodiment, the Research, and the Researcher 171
  11. Notes 177
  12. References 193
  13. Index 209
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