ABSTRACT
This chapter reveals the Western-centric and homogenizing nature of the 'Big Citizen critique' with reference to the People's Republic of China (PRC), a commercial celebrity culture and a philanthropic sector. It provides a historical development of celebrity and philanthropy in the Western context, and outlines some of the key arguments provided by supporters and critics of celanthropy. The chapter explains why the terms 'celebrity' and 'philanthropy' had no meaning in the PRC until after the country adopted market-based economic reforms and a policy of opening up to the rest of the world in December 1978. The evident problem with the Big Citizen critique, as demonstrated by the China case studies, is that the operation of celebrity philanthropy in practice is far from straightforward. The chapter concludes that a more nuanced understanding of celanthropy would acknowledge that celebrity philanthropy may take different forms and have diverse effects in different historical, cultural and political contexts.
