After decades of egalitarian, restricted consumption, the residents
of China's cities are today surrounded by material comforts and
awash in a level of commercial hype that was totally unimaginable
just ten years ago. In this first in-depth treatment of the
consumer revolution in China, fourteen leading scholars of Chinese
culture and society explore the interpersonal consequences of rapid
commercialization.
In the early 1980s Beijing's communist leadership advocated
decollectivization, foreign trade, and private entrepreneurship to
jump-start a stagnant economy. It explicitly rejected any notion
that economic reforms would lead to political change, but by the
early 1990s its program had not only produced double-digit growth
but also enabled ordinary citizens to nurture dreams and social
networks that challenged official monopolies of power. Using
participant observation, the authors in this book describe and
analyze a wide range of these changing consumer practices,
including luxury housing, white wedding gowns, greeting cards,
McDonald's, discos, premium cigarettes, and bowling.
Capitalism has brought urban Chinese both a higher material
standard of living and new freedoms to create a private life beyond
the control of the state. This important book offers rare insights
into the world's largest marketplace.
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