The Instrumental Consumption of Ethnic Culture: Assessing Two Economically Driven Ways of Consuming the Cheongsam in China

Abstract

Under the contemporary circumstances of symbolic consumption, multiculturalism, and accelerated globalization, ethnic cultures have become more available and more attractive to consumers. A consequence is that the instrumental consumption of ethnic culture becomes much more common. This study’s first objective is to clarify it by analyzing the instrumental consumption of the cheongsam, a Chinese traditional dress. This study’s second objective is to illustrate that the normative implications of instrumental consumption of ethnic culture are more complex and open-ended than currently understood. I substantiate this argument by contrasting two economically driven ways of consuming the cheongsam: non-wealthy women wearing cheongsams for their affordability and fashion businesses using the cheongsam style to generate profits. I show that the former case is relatively benign while the latter is not. They show that even when instrumental consumption is driven by purposes irrelevant to ethnicity, some instances of it can yield ethnicity-relevant outcomes. Among these ethnicity-relevant outcomes, some of them empower ethnic cultures. This study’s data include formal and informal interviews, participant observation in several Chinese cities, and a variety of documentary sources.