Consumer culture of China refers to the emergence of social arrangements with Chinese characteristics in which the relations between lived culture and social resources are mediated through the rapid marketization of China. This type of consumption is situated in contexts experienced primarily in mainland China such as China's one-child policy.
History Consumer culture emerged in China in the final years of Qing Dynasty, when China's self-imposed autarky was gradually demolished by a series of foreign invasions. Along with western industrial capitalist enterprises came manufactured goods from the west and Japan, hence the emergence of consumer culture, Lifestyles were radically transformed when industrial products became readily available at much cheaper prices than local goods made in traditional ways. Consumerism in the late imperial and Republican eras were heavily intertwined with the process of establishing China as a nation, despite the absence of tariff tools due to China ceding its sovereignty to major world powers after substantial military failures.
The Republican era saw the establishment of commercial advertisements and brand hierarchies, especially globally famous brands. When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power in 1949, trade with foreign countries was cut or greatly reduced due to the Korean War and subsequent sanctions, leading to the diminishing of foreign brands in China, although existing users still cherished items such as Parker pens, Singer sewing machines, and numerous Swiss wristwatches, and many items still found their way to China during the Mao era in smaller quantities.
Consumerism and consumer culture did not demise during the Mao era. Brand hierarchies were replaced by a series of Chinese brands run by state-owned enterprises. During this period, forms of consumer culture altered in response to the country's political atmosphere, which emphasizes hard work and frugal living (艰苦朴素). Fetishism, or the worship of commodities, continued to exist in various forms. For instance, ownership of a wristwatch was connected to privileged social status, since watches were not only expensive but also required coupons. For women, mastery in using sewing machines was considered to be highly favorable, as being able to sew would indicate the likelihood of being a better wife. Throughout the Mao era, uneven distribution of industrial products continued to enlarge the three main social differences: urban vs. rural, industrial vs. agricultural, and intellectual vs. manual labor (三大差别) that the party claimed it would try to bridge.
After the reform and opening, China underwent drastic economic changes that fueled the emergence of a large, vibrant, and diverse commodity economy and the rise of consumer culture, including a growing interest in luxury brands. However, the rise of consumerism came with a range of negative externalities, including economic inequalities that increased as a new elite class rise through rent-seeking and privatization of state assets. Within two decades China transformed from a poor but rather economically egalitarian socialist country to a market economy in which Gini coefficients, a measure of income inequality, keep rising.
Rise of consumerism
Late imperial and republican era
Emergence of imported goods and the disintegration of natural economy
Before 19th century China was largely in autarky, characterized by a self-sustainable natural economy. The Qianlong Emperor made a very famous comment on the issue when he spoke to an embassy led by George Macartney in 1793: "The celestial empire......has all kinds of exotic and valuable items as you have seen......We do not need to trade with you for anything." At that time China showed no interest to British goods or foreign goods in general, but the situation soon began to change in 19th century.
Industrially manufactured goods like cloth flooded into China after the Opium War due to the much lower tariff rate specified in the unequal Treaty of Nanking and the following tax agreement in 1843. Tariff for British textile range from 13.38% to 29.93% previously but were slashed to 5.56 to 6.95% after 1843.
Technological superiority is another major reason for the vast popularity of imported goods. From 1788 to 1840, costs of textile lowered for more than 90% in England, making imported cloth much cheaper than domestic products, and they were much better in quality. Imported English cloth had vivid colors and dense fiber, making them very comfortable to wear. Wide availability of imported textile gave rise to a gradual but definitive change in garment styles. Western style garments infiltrated the vast majority of China, not limited to coastal regions or large cities. Prior to 1894, garments in China mostly retained their traditional forms and design, but gradual change began to take place as foreign materials became readily available, contact with foreigners increased, and importers started to work more on promoting their products.
So were foreign utensils. Mechanically produced safety matches, referred to as "foreign fire" by Chinese users, were easier to use than traditional fire-making tools and soon replaced the traditional lifestyle of making fire. Imported kerosene also replaced peanut oil in daily illumination as they were brighter and cheaper. Kerosene became widely used by Chinese households starting from 1880s as they were imported to China in bulk. In 1887 kerosene make up 1.3% of the total value of imported goods, in 1894 it was already 4.9%, more than tripled in seven years. In terms of volume, it was 23 million gallons in 1886, and tripled to 69 million gallons in 1894, also tripled.
This can be seen in the evolution of new words containing "foreign" (洋). Famous reformist writer and thinker Zheng Guanying listed around 50 words that contain "foreign" in his famous 1893 book Words of Warning to a Prosperous Age, all of them point to an imported product. The popularity of "foreign" containing words suggest people have been very familiar with imported products, if not all of them had experienced the goods.
Better quality/performance and relative cheap price soon made imported goods vastly popular especially in coastal regions of China after 1870s. Before the consumption of imported goods were limited to rich people in coastal regions, but as traffic infrastructure improves over time, imported goods spread to more remote areas, even in the countryside, rendering traditional handcrafts useless. As of 1936, only 24.4% peasants still weave their own cloth.
New forms of commerce Came with new products were new forms of commerce, like advertisements and department stores. The popularity of imported goods is also partly due to meticulous marketing techniques adopted by manufacturers and importers. Importers of foreign goods made good use of advertisements, as the newspapers and magazines sprouted after 1895. From 1898 to 1912, the number of Chinese newspapers and magazines skyrocketed from approximately 100 to more than 500. Including those have demised, the number would be from 700 to 800. As of 1913, 51 million copies of newspapers and magazines had been shipped.
Approximately 60% to 70% of all the newspaper advertisements belonged to foreign companies or their agents. In larger cities like Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan and Guangzhou (Canton), outdoor billboards are also very common. As of 1934, there are more than 4000 square meters of billboards in Shanghai. Sometimes there were also promotion teams wielding advertisements on the street, giving out small samples of products or merchandises like calendars, posters or diaries.
A revolution in retailing, department stores appeared in western Europe and North America in late 19th century and made their way to large cities in China shortly afterwards, bringing into China new forms of consumerism. Traditional retail modes emphasize specialization and letting customers find items they need as quickly as possible, viewing shopping as a must-do chore that should be finished quickly. Department stores are built around exactly opposite philosophy. They are dedicated to make shopping become an experience by itself through carefully arranging the shopping space in a way that picking items offer an all-around sensory stimulation. Department stores also became pioneers in employing advanced technology like elevators and air conditioning to create a modern and comfortable shopping environment.
Shanghai, with its large numbers of rich or middle-class people and convenient transportation, was the most notable place in nurturing new consumption forms. From 1920 to 1949, at least 82 shopping sites in Shanghai identify themselves as department stores. They came in various sizes, having one feature in common: they sell a wide range of products. It is worth noting that some specialized dealerships like Chinese Underwear (中国内衣) and Yongsheng Children's Clothing (永生童装) also call themselves department stores, but this suggests the name "department store" itself was considered new, fashionable and sought after. Among them four were the most prominent: Xianshi (先施), Yongan (永安), Xinxin (新新) and Daxin (大新), together they were referred to as the "Four Majors" (四大). Most department stores located on the Nanking Road, at the core of the International Settlement, where traffic is dense. The erection of department stores also established the area's figure as modern and luxurious, as department stores provide goods and services that are usually associated with "modernity", like timepieces, glasses, cigarettes and jewelry while driving "traditional" businesses like catering, bath houses and home improvements out of the area. In this way, department stores not only redefined consumption, but also reshaped Shanghai's landscape and powered a surge in consumption.
Consumption and ideology Imported goods flooding into China also gave rise to new thoughts, the most notable being worries and bitterness towards China's lack of industrial power. People began to increasingly define their own identities through consuming branded commodities, those concerns evolved into a prolonged political movement in 1930s, dedicated to establishing China as a nation state. Commonly referred to as the National Products Movement (国货运动), it is a series of loosely connected thoughts that divides products into "national" and "foreign", thus promoting, sometimes coercing consumers to buy "national goods". Consumption of national goods were considered to be beneficial to the country, while foreign goods were considered to be hostiles and should be boycotted.
Many influential figures have been avid promoters of national products. From government officials to famous writers to industrialists, people wrote in militant and provocative languages to portray foreign goods and those who sell them as invaders, while national goods were pivotal to the country's survival from the perspective of promoting capital growth. One quintessential example is Yu Dafu, a famous writer and poet, who wrote in his article On the Usage of National Goods (关于使用国货) in 1936: "Unless you are in urgent need of something that is only made available by foreign manufacturers, like books and stationeries, otherwise you should use national goods as long as they are available." He also pointed out he saved a fortune through buying brushes and Chinese crude paper instead of western stationeries.