This book tells the story of a Chinese family owned shophouse in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, through the lens of petite capitalism. Neo-Marxist in spirit, literary in tone, it recounts the triumph and despair of a family in its struggles against the financial frailty and structural limitations of a pervasive economic form of the Chinese diaspora: the small family business.

The daily realities of the Chinese shophouse are captured by the art of ethnography and the author's own memories. The book examines Chinese petite capitalism afresh by bringing into focus issues not usually covered by writers on the subjectthe concept of petite capitalism, the architecture of the Asian shophouse, the Hakka kinship, 'tiger parenting' and Chinese childrearing, the culture of debt, family legacy, and Chinese inheritance.

The book reveals the business acumen for which the Chinese diaspora are renowned as part truth and part myth. Schumpeter's 'creative destruction' hauntsthe small Chinese family business where hard work and individual efforts are helpless against the ever-evolving nature of capitalism.

Unpacks the legacy of the Chinese diaspora through the pervasive economic form of the small family business Examines Chinese petite capitalism by exploring issues not usually covered by other writers Brilliantly intertwines economic analysis with ethnology

Autorentext

Souchou Yao is a writer and critic based in Sydney, Australia, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is a former Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Sydney. His major works include Confucian Capitalism: Discourse, practice and the myth of Chinese enterprise (2002), Singapore: The state and the culture of excess (2007), and The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a small, distant war (2016).  

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Petite Capitalism: What Drives it?.- 2. The Shop on High Street.- 3. 'She's not Your Kin, But She is Your Aunt'.- 4. Women's Fate.- 5. Shop-Floor Heroes .- 6. Tiger Parenting.- 7. A Lesson on Borrowing.- 8. Wholesale: The Road to Ruin.- 9. Family Legacy.