Tai Tai or the Woman of Taste
"It is not enough to simply spend money. One must also spend a lot of time in spending money as well as spending a lot of time in learning how to spend money." |
[ page 3 ]Of course, there might be a reason for such conspicuous consumption on the part of the Tai Tais other than to define identities. Bourdieu theorizes "economic power [to be] first and foremost the power to keep economic necessity at arm's length. That is why it universally asserts itself by the destruction of riches, conspicuous consumption, squandering, and every other form of gratuitous (author's emphasis) luxury" (55). This is amply demonstrated by the consumption behavior of the Tai Tais, which key characteristic is excess. As Levey reveals, Tai Tais define themselves by this excess. Indeed, given that this excess consumption is achieved solely through supplementary credit cards, Tai Tais possessing little money or property of their own, they have a compelling need to manifest the economic power they do possess temporally.The many hours spent playing mah-jong, on going on overseas spending sprees, the long days at the salons, the lunches and the high teas discussing the latest offerings of couturiers, and the parties lasting into the wee hours of the morning demonstrate another important principle. Bourdieu discloses "distinction [is attached] to all those activities which . . . demand pure, pointless expenditure, especially of the rarest and most precious thing of all . . . namely, time, time devoted to consumption or time devoted to the cultural acquisition which adequate consumption presupposes" (281). Therefore, those activities, i.e. certain forms of consumption, which demand the greatest amount of time, are the most distinctive. It is not enough to simply spend money. One must also spend a lot of time in spending money as well as spending a lot of time in learning how to spend money.
However, this enormous expenditure of time may not be as materialistic as Bourdieu's theorizing causes it to appear. The real reason may be more psychological. These women are the antithesis of career women after all. They are required to be economically unproductive in their role as status symbols for their husbands. The usual recourse of women is either unavailable to them or inappropriate in their position. Their children are either grown up or are taken care of by the multitude of servants they employ, as is the housework. Their husbands are often away working, only appearing to escort them to high-society functions where they then have the opportunity of fulfilling the only overt raison d'être of their lives.
Here the question arises of what exactly is their raison d'être? Bourdieu suggests (quoting Marx) that " man is initially posited as a private property owner i.e. an exclusive owner whose exclusive ownership permits him both to preserve his personality and to distinguish himself from other men, as well as relate to them . . . private property is man's personal, distinguishing and hence material existence"(280). Replace "private property" with "Tai Tai" and the role played by Tai Tais appears in a clearer light. I am not implying here that a Tai Tai is a form of private property. However, they do possess some of the semiological connotations associated with private property since both affirm the individual status of man as well as the collective status of his class.
In Bourdieu's view, each member of a couple is characterized by the spouse's social position. He goes on to say that given the logic of the division of labor between the sexes, which gives precedence to women in matters of taste, the man's own taste is primarily determined by his wife's (108-9). Therefore, it is not surprising that a wife (a Tai Tai particularly) is such an important part of the "universe of luxury objects, distinguished and distinctive, selected and selective" (Bourdieu 278). Moreover, given that the structure of the distribution of economical capital is symmetrical and opposite to that of cultural capital (Bourdieu 120), especially in Hong Kong with its rags-to-riches stories of self-made men, it becomes even more imperative that the wife should possess the requisite cultural capital in abundance in order to establish her husband's social stature.
It might seem crass to classify a group of people as a type of commodity, even if the intensely materialistic nature of their lives seems to justify it. The object of such a classification is merely to facilitate the understanding of the sociological underpinnings of the Tai Tai lifestyle. As it was shown, this particular lifestyle is rich in the semiological sense as well as in the more everyday sense of the word. It is ironic that Tai Tais, being the ultimate consumers they are, end up being the ultimate consumables.
Works Cited
Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge, 1992.
Chan, Annie Hau-nung. "Middle-class Formation and Consumption in Hong Kong." Consumption in Asia: Lifestyles and Identities. Ed. Chua, Beng Huat. London, NY: Routledge, 2000. 99-134.
Gwee, Monica. "They Fear the Sell-by Date." The Straits Times (Singapore) 3 April 1999: L8.
Levey, Collin. "Culture Clash: 21st-Century Concubines-In Hong Kong, Being Arm Candy is Still Cool." The Asian Wall Street Journal 4 June 2001: W7.
About the writer: Karunanethy Kalaivani, co-winner of the folio prize in 2002, is a Mathematics major, who joined the University Scholars Programme in 2001.
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