The Cultural Politics of Conspicuous Consumption in China

Abstract

To adequately understand contemporary conspicuous consumption in China, one needs to put it in a historical background and look at it not only from an economic perspective but also from cultural and political points of view. Both China and the West have had the phenomenon of conspicuous consumption at different historical periods, which, in their own ways, have constituted different cultural and political narratives and have demonstrated in them different characteristics. Three Confucian values that affect Chinese people's consumption of luxurious commodities-namely, maintaining consistency between behavior and status, family reputation and the awareness of other people's influence-are the cultural reasons that distinguish Chinse conspicuous consumption from that of the Western mode.