Abstract
The Chinese medicine trade in Malaysia is run on the classic petite capitalist mode: owner-operating and using family labour. It is small in capital and in turnover, and social shame is cast on the owner for his meagre wealth and limited social standing. For some shopkeepers, the ‘littleness’—the petite of petite capitalism—becomes a drive, an anxious striving to improve the circumstances facing them and their families.
The concept of petite capitalism shows up the inner life of the Chinese family business. Together with economic betterment, alienation of the young and financial overreaching of the adults are its crucial elements.
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Notes
- 1.
Georg Simmel, The Philosophy of Money, David Frisby (ed.), London and NY: Routledge, 2005, p. 62.
- 2.
James C. Scott, Two Cheers for Anarchism, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 112.
- 3.
Raymond Williams, Keywords, NY: OUP, 1985, p. 46
- 4.
Scott, Two Cheers for Anarchism, p. 85.
- 5.
Alan and Josephine Smart (eds.), Petty Capitalists and Globalization: flexibility, entrepreneurship, and economic development, NY: SUNY Press, 2012, p. 2.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
In Malaysia today, many of the Chinese healers are still self-taught. Some have attended Kuala Lumpur Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and for those with funding the Beijing Chinese Medicine University, China, is the popular choice.
- 8.
https://ctext.org/shang-han-lun/bian-mai-fa. Accessed 2 August, 2018.
- 9.
My disclaim of expertise is no mere ritual of modesty. The exoteric and complex system of Chinese healing would test any interested layperson. At the same time, to speak of ‘pharmacological properties’ is to fit Chinese medicine into the Western scientific framework. Not surprisingly, the major complaint of Chinese medicine is that its efficacy cannot often be reproduced, and fails in the standardized guideline in gauging the cure of a specific remedy. See: Kecheng; Jia, Nati; Jiang, Nan; Wang, Feng; Kou, Junping, ‘Beneficial effect of Danggui-Shaoyao-San, a traditional Chinese medicine, on drowsiness induced by chronic restraint stress’, Neuroscience Letters, June 15, 2015, Vol. 597, pp. 26–31.
- 10.
http://www.itmonline.org/arts/antler.htm. Accessed 7 August, 2018.
- 11.
See my The Malayan Emergency, Essays on a small and distant war, Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2016.
- 12.
http://www.worldstopexports.com/malaysias-top-10-exports. Accessed 7 January, 2019.
- 13.
Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1 [1867]: translated by S. Moore and E. Aveling, in R.C. Tucker (ed), The Marx-Engels Reader, NY: W.W. Norton, 1978, pp. 319–329.
Bibliography
Marx, Karl. 1978. ‘Capital, vol. 1’. R. C. Tucker (ed), Marx and Engels Reader. NY: W.W. Norton, 319–29.
Scott, James C. 2012. Two Cheers for Anarchism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Simmel, Georg. 2005. The Philosophy of Money. David Frisby (ed), London and NY: Routledge.
Smart, Alan, and Josephine Smart. (eds.) 2012. Petty Capitalists and Globalization. Albany: SUNY Press.
Williams, Raymond. 1985. Keywords. NY: Oxford University Press.
Yao Souchou, 2016. The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small, Distant War. Copenhagen: NIAS Press.
Zhou, Kecheng, Nati Jia, Nan Jiang, Feng Wang, and Junping Kou. 2015. ‘Beneficial Effect of Danggui-Shaoyao-San, a Traditional Chinese Medicine, on Drowsiness Induced by Chronic Restraint Stress’, Neuroscience Letters, 597: 26–31.
Internet Resources
Subhuti Dharmananda, ‘Deer antler to Nourish Blood, Bone, and Joints’, http://www.itmonline.org/arts/antler.htm. Accessed August 7, 2018.
Workman, Daniel, ‘Malaysia’s Top 10 Exports’, http://www.worldstopexports.com/malaysias-top-10-exports. Accessed August 30, 2019.
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Yao, S. (2020). Petite Capitalism: What Drives It?. In: The Shop on High Street. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2031-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2031-0_1
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