1 - Positioning in the Interstices: The Case of Dai Female Entrepreneurs in the Rubber Business in Xishuangbanna, China

Large-scale rubber business in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in China’s southwestern Yunnan Province is dominated by Han Chinese. Therefore, Dai female rubber entrepreneurs are multiply marginal due to their lack of economic capital and their “inferior” status as female ethnic minority subjects.

Since the first rubber plantations in the 1950s, the sharp contrast of Han Chinese as advanced and modern while ethnic minorities are seen as backward and primitive has been deeply ingrained in Xishuangbanna’s rubber industry. This ideologically charged marginalization of ethnic groups is detrimental to Dai female rubber entrepreneurs. However, they still find successful ways to tactically play on essentialized notions of Dai ethnicity and feminity associated with Xishuangbanna to navigate the workings of business in China.

In China in general, beautiful and charming women are assigned to sexual involvement in male-dominated business, serving to build up male bonding and show businessmen’s abilities. However, rather than being ethnic sexual objects, Dai female entrepreneurs try to gain recognition and respect from businessmen by alienating themselves from the possible sexual rumor, at least in public. In order to blend in with male business networks, they act as middlewomen between businessmen and their mistresses, assisting businessmen to consume other young and beautiful women.

Positioning in the interstices of the intersecting fields of rubber business and ethnic minority, masculine business networks and female identity, Dai female entrepreneurs try to build up an educated, knowledgeable and professional image, emphasizing their own ability in entrepreneurship as autonomous female ethnic agents.