Abstract：According to Pierre Bourdieu， modern education system has been functioned as the major path to legitimize individuals’ cultural capital. However， in the field of antique collection， the cultivation of one’s “discerning eye” or yanli in Chinese is usually through trading rather than schooling. This paper thus explores an alternative path to legitimize cultural capital in the field of antique collection. With the fieldwork conducted in a city of south China， focusing on the occupational path of two individuals， the paper uses the two individuals’ life stories to show how yanli has been legitimized outside of the schooling system， demonstrating the rules of occupational mobility in the antique collection field in the transformation period in China.
