Adaptation in Institutional Interstices: Legitimacy-Building Strategies of Physiognomists and Their Social Roots: ——A Case Study of a Historic Street in Shanghai

Mintao Jiang; Shimo Zhou

doi:10.63313/LLCS.2004

Authors

Mintao Jiang School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China Author
Shimo Zhou School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63313/LLCS.2004

Keywords:

Divinatory practices, Physiognomists, Risk society, Atomized society, Consumer society

Abstract

Based on fieldwork conducted on a historic street in Shanghai, this study em-ploys in-depth interviews and participatory observation to investigate how street physiognomists construct legitimacy within modernity dominated by scientific rationality. As intermediaries connecting the public with divinatory practices, physiognomists deploy five core strategies: (1) quasi-kinship solicita-tion (physical contact and kinship terms); (2) hyper-pragmatic content produc-tion (focusing on life issues like marriage and career); (3) moralized dis-course (ethical exhortations and lifeworld narratives); (4) techno-commercial modernization (online divination and priced lot-drawing); (5) religious-traditional rationalization (invoking Buddhist/Daoist authority). These strategies rebuild the legitimacy of divination within institutional inter-stices by responding to three structural dilemmas: translating systemic occupa-tional/romantic risks into individualized fortune narratives for risk society; substituting absent emotional support with pseudo-familial bonds for atomized society; and repackaging mysticism as symbolic security commodi-ties for consumer society. The findings reveal that contemporary divination’s vitality stems from physiognomists’ adaptive practices of hybridizing tradi-tional resources and modern elements to navigate China’s social transfor-mation contradictions.

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