ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the core institution of the traditional ritual economy – the lineage – and how it relates to institutional structures in the modern Shenzhen economy. The ultimate evidence of the implicit ritual status of the shareholding cooperative is its role in organizing and funding ritual activities and pursuing collective interests. The shareholding cooperatives have a governance structure that is basically like the regulations that apply in the Company Law for listed companies, that is, distinguishing between the shareholder assembly, the board of directors and the supervisory board. Historically, the allocation of shares between the villagers and the ‘parent cooperative’ was settled at 51 and 49 per cent, respectively; this still applies for the parent cooperative. A litmus test for identifying the relationship between lineage and shareholding cooperative is the treatment of women, which in the public regulations emphasize gender equality in the rights allocation.
