John Osburg, 39, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Rochester, is the author of “Anxious Wealth: Money and Morality Among China’s New Rich,” based on his research in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu. His book paints a rich picture of the complex ways in which men and women try to buy favors and get ahead in business ventures, often by courting government officials at night clubs and often over drinking and sex. And it describes a milieu beset by anxiety over whether their gains can last.
In the first part of an interview, Mr. Osburg discussed how embedded corrupt practices are in China, the prospects for change after President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on graft and why so many rich Chinese are emigrating. In this second part, he discusses his latest research on the surprising turn that many of China’s new rich have made toward Tibetan Buddhism and other forms of spiritual fulfillment: [Source]