Abstract
ABSTRACT Scholarly debates concerning the transformation of clientelism have rarely focused on everyday life in urban China. This ethnographic study in Nanjing city attempted to characterize the new patterns of patron–client ties by examining how real estate investors evade unfavorable rules and multiple layers of ‘authorities’, such as local governments, banks, and state-owned developers, offer or withdraw their support. The article highlights a new clientelism that differs from Chinese guanxi and old clientelism. The new form is broker-based, where new patrons and clients no longer interact directly but exchange through brokers. Brokers act as ‘white gloves’ for new patrons to maximize profit and security and as temporary bridges for clients to access patronage resources. Brokers are highly specialized, and their relationships with clients are not sentimental but instrumental, unlike zhongjian ren in guanxi. The emerging broker-based clientelistic networks reinforce inequality of opportunity but not necessarily economic inequality. Implications for understanding power and the housing system in contemporary China are discussed.
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