Overseas Chinese Christian Entrepreneurs in Modern China: A Case Study of the Influence of Christian Ethics on Business Life by Joy Kooi-Chin Tong (review)

Abstract

Prajñ ap aramit a, the Dazhi du lun 大智度論, explaining the scholastic thinking of the Sarv astiv ada school pertinent at that time in Central Asia. In addition to the central part of the study in chapter 3, discussing the BWZL and thus giving the reader some insight into the intellectual debate on crucial aspects of early M adhyamika thinking in China, it must be regarded as a great achievement of this study that Streif also focuses on the political context, mainly in chapter 4. We learn about the interest of certain regional rulers, as well as of gentry families, in legitimating their position by means of Buddhist concepts, especially the bodhisattva ideal, as well as about the opportunities of exchange during times of peace between northern and southern China. Of utmost importance is the part (chapter 5) on the reflexive use of language and on the relation between language and reality, or words and things in general, and how the BWZL dealt with these problems in particular. In sum this study is a most insightful contribution to our knowledge of M adhyamika in China and on the intellectual situation in China in the first decades of the fifth century CE. HELWIG SCHMIDT-GLINTZER Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel JOY KOOI-CHIN TONG, Overseas Chinese Christian Entrepreneurs in Modern China: A Case Study of the Influence of Christian Ethics on Business Life. London and New York: Anthem Press, 2013. x, 167 pp. US$40 (pb). ISBN 9781 -78308-056-4 This book is a sociological enterprise based on participant observation and indepth interviews aiming to examine mainly how Christianity affects Overseas Chinese Christian entrepreneurs in contemporary China, particularly their economic practices. Through a well-planned set of solid methodological procedures and clearly written, cautiously proposed arguments, Tong provides valid, reliable, valuable findings to support her arguments that may correct, refute, or challenge some presumptuous claims and widely shared yet little proven impressions about Chinese Christianity, Confucianism, and business, or broader issues on the relationship between religious value and economic action. Accordingly, this volume helps the reader to theoretically appreciate how faithbased values, moral convictions, economic practices, and religious life interact (particularly in the light of Max Weber and his widely cited works and the responses to it); it also highlights the spiritual and social aspects of the entrepreneurs who have played significant roles in contributing to economic transformations since the reform and opening era and their potential social consequences to Chinese economic life and religious landscapes. The main body of the book (chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7) is arranged in a very Weberian way, which starts social analysis from values that orient the conduct of individuals and then moves on to larger social assemblages and organizations linking individuals. These four chapters are respectively devoted to investigating Overseas Chinese Christian entrepreneurs’ religiously-motivated values, religiousvalue -driven economic practices and organizational arrangements in their companies, their social networks and religious life, and the female subgroup. Among the values pointed out, many (such as innovation, self-discipline, frugality, the sense of success) could be commonly found among entrepreneurs in many 252 BOOK REVIEWS places and historical periods; however, Tong shows how these Overseas Chinese Christians articulate them to fit their aspirations crafted in a globalizing competitive market of business. In chapter 5, she further demonstrates different strategies of linking religious faith to or realizing it in the economic practices and organizational designs of corporations. While some individuals enthusiastically run a company like a church, others tend to take an individualized and privatized version of Christian beliefs and manage secular corporation affairs on their own terms. Still, some entrepreneurs choose a middle path to selectively and creatively implement some Christian values within the business, but purposely avoid mentioning or downplaying the practices’ religious source. Chapter 6 shows how the aforementioned Christian values and conduct are inspired, guided, and supervised by religious networks and contextualized within the dynamics of Christian interrelationships. Unlike what Weber observed in American Protestant cases at the beginning of the twentieth century in his short work, The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism, these Overseas Chinese Christian businesspeople construct and charge their moral aspirations in economic practices through their continuous...