The sickle and the garlic chives: Volatility in the Chinese stock market (original) (raw)
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The paper provides an account of the distinctive features of Chinese financialization. I argue that in China, “mass financialization” was strategically led by the state which sought to compensate for the social outcomes that resulted from the dismantling of the communist model of collective work units (danwei). As a matter of fact, in the process of accommodating the entrance of global capital after the economic reforms launched by Deng Xiaoping, the state also pushed for a general restructuring of the society. Factors such as the reform of the labor system and the corresponding dissolution of social guarantees produced a climate of deep and generalized displacement among the Chinese population. Thus, the state acted as the primary mobilizer of a new Chinese economic life that led to financialization. Notably, it was at this time of a deeply-shaken political social and economic order that the state opened up the stock market. Since the opening of the stock exchanges in Shenzhen (1990) and Shanghai (1992), a wave of ‘stock fever’ (gupiaore) has swept the population. State policy, by using rhetoric that aims to imbue the population with a healthy desire of becoming rich through stock investments, has stirred up a craving for money. The stock market is working as a bi-functional device: not only offers a chance for further enrichment in the context of a shrinking welfare state and increasing individualization of the society, it also acquires the role of a social space where individual investors can regroup and function in an ersatz of community belonging. I provide an account of the current phase of Chinese mass financialization through an analysis of the subjectivities involved in this process. I focus on the disaggregated subjectivities left behind by the state-driven dismantling of the danwei, particularly sanhu [literally “scattered investors”] and dahu [large “scattered investors”], as one of the most emblematic actors emerged during the whole process. I argue that this set of state intervention succeeded into strengthening the “myths of origin” of the contemporary Chinese regime: financialization acted as the ground in which government slogans such as “to enrich is glorious,” “richness is within range,” and “dream a Chinese dream” were subsequently formulated.
Demystifying China’s Stock Market: The Hidden Logic Behind the Puzzles
Demystifying China’s Stock Market, 2019
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Working Papers, 2009
The purpose of this paper is to describe China's unique historical development that transformed the Celestial Empire into the largest economy in the world in the beginning of the nineteenth century, with a GDP that exceeded that of Western Europe, Japan, the US and Russia combined, and the decline during the 'Century of Humiliation', and Mao Zedong's communism that culminated in the 'Three Bitter Years' from 1958 to 1961 that produced the large famine with an estimated death of 20 to 30 million people. After this disaster, aggravated by the 'Cultural Revolution' that followed, came the amazing growth started by Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms in 1978, that is only comparable to the United States emergence as an economic giant during the nineteenth century. China's sustained growth, at an astounding 10 percent per year over the last 30 years, is without precedent. Many economists predict this growth rate will continue at 7 to 8 percent per year for several decades. This extraordinary sustained growth was partially fueled by the formation of its rapidly expanding financial market, and the profit and risks that its stock marked provides investors.
Introduction: Volatility in finance, art, and culture
Finance and Society, 2023
Special Issue on Volatility in Finance, Art, and Culture co-edited by Benjamin Lee and Emily Rosamond The term 'volatility' applies to changeability: both that which can be measured, such as temperatures and stock prices, and that which cannot be easily measured, such as affects and emotions. Quantitative financial volatility has typically been studied quite separately from art, culture, and everyday life. Randy Martin's work, which addressed the resonances between volatility in dance and finance, was a notable exception. Martin focused on derivatives, which played a critical role in the development of financialized capitalism, especially between 1973-2008. Arguably, however, derivatives are no longer the key drivers of volatility as a social and cultural logic. New assemblages of asset managers, rentiers, and online platforms-along with a pandemic, new banking crises, and ongoing climate emergency-are reshaping how volatility is produced and navigated. How might we rethink volatility in order to better grasp its changing logics? This introduction unpacks existing debates on volatility in finance, art, and culture, suggesting several directions in which new work in this area might depart from existing frameworks-some of which are pursued in this special issue. We focus on three broad lines of exploration: rethinking the intellectual histories of volatility; rethinking volatility across disparate post-2008 contexts; and imagining volatile futures through art practice.
The precarious Chinese financial ecology of expertise: discontent in the mix
Journal of Cultural Economy, 2020
By describing features of Chinese financialisation through en masse stock market trading, the article concerns the development of a Chinese financial ecology of expertise. This indicates a new precarious knowledge regime in which the relationship between the state and the financial subjects it fosters is increasingly defined through financial terms. It argues that the Chinese financialisation should be investigated alongside the state's project directed at financialising human capital and encouraging stock trading as a reaction to an increasingly contractualised labour market and vanishing welfare state. By observing investing strategies of both formally trained expert investors and untrained investors, it emerges how the preeminence of investing activities in the market risks exceeding that of waged labour. The Chinese stock market becomes a site to observe not only the reworking of the relationship between money and wages in China, but also the formation of a financialised redistributive regime in which the state's legitimacy becomes increasingly dependent on its capacity to jiushirescue the market in times of crisis.
International Journal of Communication
Finance to examine how the mainstream financial news choose topics, themes, and styles in reporting "Internet finance," a business category initiated by the Chinese state in 2013 to vitalize the finance sector and offset economic slowdown. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses reveals that the major Chinese media outlets aggressively promoted the technological advantages of Internet finance and its profit potential in stock markets while obscuring the risks, uncertainties, and regulatory constraints inherent in it. Drawing on the institutional theory in media studies, this article argues that the mainstream financial news in China functions as a political, economic, and cultural-cognitive institution supporting the informatization and marketization of the finance sector. Such an institutional role is both a corollary and propeller of the increasingly financialized economy and culture in China.
Hot Trading and Price Stability Under Media Supervision in the Chinese Stock Market
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2020
The Chinese stock market is one of the markets where price reversal easily takes place in the world. Its opening has been accelerating. However, this market has plenty of shortcomings, some of which involve China's special corporate culture. Artificial manipulations in financial reports are prevalent, which gives rise to uncertainties of investments. We propose turnover, financial transparency, and media coverage in the discussion of Chinese momentum. In so doing, we investigate the reasons for price reversal. We find that portfolio with high turnover usually has high financial transparency but it easily encounters price reversal. By contrast, the portfolio with high media coverage is free of price reversal even if these stocks have relatively low transparency and turnover.
Confucius and Herding Behaviour in the Stock Markets in China and Taiwan
Sustainability , 2018
Abstract It has been argued in the literature that financial markets with a Confucian background tend to exhibit herding behaviour, or correlated behavioural patterns in individuals. This paper applies the return dispersion model to investigate financial herding behaviour by examining index returns from the stock markets in China and Taiwan. The sample period is from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2014, and the data were obtained from Thomson Reuters Datastream. Although the sample period finishes in 2014, the data are more than sufficient to test the three hypotheses relating to the stock markets in China and Taiwan, both of which have Confucian cultures. The empirical results demonstrate significant herding behaviour under both general and specified markets conditions, including bull and bear markets, and high-low trading volume states. This paper contributes to the herding literature by examining three different hypotheses regarding the stock markets in China and Taiwan, and showing that there is empirical support for these hypotheses.
Everyday discourses of stock market investing: Searching for investor power and responsibility
Consumption Markets & Culture, 2011
The latest financial crisis has aroused public discussion about the moral aspects of financial speculation and the rights and responsibilities of different market actors, including private consumers of financial products. Shifting the focus away from the level of individual morals and choices, this paper sets out to trace the discursive “conditions of possibility” for reflective and responsible financial consumption. Through a critical discourse analysis of media and marketing texts, the paper identifies and examines four conventionalized discourses of stock market investing: market mechanics, market psychology, market participation, and market expertise. The paper shows how each of these widely normalized discourses articulates investing as an individual enterprise of wealth management, devoid of broader social or political relevance. It is argued that the prevalence of such representations is likely to discourage social awareness with regard to financial consumption and to impede the establishment of fair and sustainable market practices.