Social trust and luxury seafood banquets in contemporary Beijing

Abstract

China is marked by rising levels of consumption, but also high levels of social distrust. This paper offers an empirical study of luxury seafood consumption in banquets in Beijing as a way of understanding perceptions of and responses to a lack of trust in abstract social institutions in Chinese society. We focus on the chronic distrust Chinese people have in the food system and the economic system. Governance of the food system is marked by failures related to food safety and authenticity, while the formal institutions of the economic system are insufficient to provide security in professional contexts. Because people do not have social trust in the rationality and effectiveness of such abstract institutions, they are compelled to generate personal trust. Luxury seafood consumption in banquets is an important component of this process of generating personal trust.

Keywords::

• China
• banquets
• consumption
• trust

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and by a Society in Science Branco Weiss Fellowship (M. Fabinyi). We thank Chen Siying, Hu Pingping, Huang Pei, Jing Kun, Qiang Zishan, Song Qingyu, Su Dan and Zhang Yongjun for their hard work in assisting with the research. We also thank Reviewer 3, whose detailed and constructive comments greatly improved the paper.

Notes

^1. In many Western countries, concerns about the environmental sustainability of the food and how it is produced are common themes among consumers. In China, these concerns are generally less important, where concerns for biodiversity and stocks of wild seafood are overshadowed by concerns relating to personal health and food safety (Fabinyi and Liu 2014).

^2. We were surprised at the openness with which operators frequently admitted to these practices. These interviews took place outside the restaurants where they worked, which may have increased their willingness to talk about such matters.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Fabinyi

Michael Fabinyi is a Society in Science - Branco Weiss Fellow at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Australia. Neng Liu is a Professor in the Department of Sociology, Peking University, China.