The Middle Class in Asia-Pacific: Second-Phase Research and Future Trajectory

ASIAN PERSPECTIVE, Vol. 28, No. 2, 2004, pp. 263-275. Commentary THE MIDDLE CLASS IN ASIA-PACIFIC: SECOND-PHASE RESEARCH AND FUTURE TRAJECTORY Alvin Y. So Issues in Studying the East Asian Middle Class Despite the existence of many journalistic accounts on Asian middle classes, very few systematic inquiries have been carried out on them in an Asian country, let alone any cross-country comparative studies.1 In this respect, the EAMC (East Asian Middle Classes) Project and the SEAMC (Southeast Asian Mid­ dle Classes) Project sponsored by Academia Sinica (Taiwan) rep­ resent the first phase of large-scale empirical investigations on the middle classes in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Sin­ gapore as well as on the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.1 2 1. This is a revised version of a paper presented at the International Work­ shop on Prioritizing the Middle Class Research in Asia Pacific, spon­ sored by the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies (CAPAS), Academia Sinica from October 31-November 1, 2003 in Taipei. An earlier version also appeared in Asia-Pacific Forum, No. 22, pp. 12-19. I want to gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of Hagen Koo, Mel Gurtov, and the conference participants. 2. Michael Hsin-Huang, ed., Discovery of Middle Classes in Fast Asia (Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, 1993); Michael HsingHuang Hsiao, ed., Fast Asia Middle Classes in Comparative Perspective (Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, 1999); Michael HsingHuang Hsiao, ed., Exploration of the Middle Classes in Southeast Asia 264 Alvin Y. So The EAMC and SEAMC projects have focused on four issues. First, is the boundary issue: How can we distinguish the middle class from other classes? What criteria and class scheme should be adopted to draw class boundaries? Second, is the soci­ ological profile issue: What are the social characteristics of the Asian middle class in terms of family background, marriage pat­ terns, and homogeneity? The lifestyle and class identity issue is third: What are the lifestyles of the middle class? Do its mem­ bers identify themselves as middle class or some other class? Fourth, is the class politics issue: What are the attitudes of the middle class toward the state, social justice, and democratic transitions? How active is the middle class in political move­ ments and elections? Preliminary analyses of the EAMC project show that the East Asian middle class defies any simplistic stereotyping. First, although many members of the East Asian middle class came from working class families, they are starting to develop class closure through intra-class marriage. Second, the East Asian middle class is generally pro-labor and anti-big capital; but a significant minority is pro-establishment, supports the state, and thinks that the society to which it belongs is not ready for democracy. As a third example, the East Asian middle class is morally committed to electoral politics; but a majority of its members have a low degree of political participation and are not active in social movements. Or again, although the East Asian middle class possesses a set of distinctive status symbols to dif­ ferentiate itself from the working class, it has yet to transfer its "cultural capital" into the political realm and emerge as a new class to challenge the state. Based on these findings, it seems that the middle class in East Asia is still in the process of making itself. Having emerged only in the post-World War II decades, the East Asian middle class is still haunted by its working class origin. Reaping in the benefits of rapid industrialization in the 1970s and the 1980s, the affluent East Asian middle class is still enjoying its current privi­ leges. Confronting the challenge of democratic transitions in the late 1980s and the 1990s, many members of the East Asian mid­ (Taipei: Program for Southeast Asian Area Studies, Academia Sinica, 2001). The Middle Class in Asia-Pacific 265 die class are still unsure whether chaotic democracy is better than benign authoritarianism.3 Despite their contributions, the EAMC and the SEAMC pro­ jects are not without limitations. First, there is the problem of drawing class boundaries. As Hagen Koo points out, "it is a wellknown fact that class boundaries of...