CONSUMING CHINA

Drawing on case studies from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, this extraordinary volume affords a greater understanding of the practice of Chinese consumerism and consumption in the People's Republic of China today.

Post-Mao China has been characterized in literature and the media as a burgeoning consumer society. Consuming China investigates this characterization by examining the cultural significance of consumption and consumerism in the People’s Republic of China today. In questioning the notion of consumption, this impressive work suggests that it is not simply a symptom of economic reform within China neither a product of the emergence and transformation of contemporary Chinese capitalism. Rather, the essays offer a new perspective on Chinese consumption by focusing on more than just consumerism, looking at the practices of consumption in relation to different manifestations of social and cultural change.

Drawing on case studies from Taiwan, Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China, Consuming China affords a greater understanding of the practice of Chinese consumption and will appeal to China scholars and anthropologists, and to those with an interest in cultural and gender studies.

1. Introduction: Consumption and Cultural Change in Contemporary China  Kevin Latham 2. Conjuring Goods, Identities and Cultures Elisabeth Croll  3. Deception, Corruption and the Chinese Ritual Economy Charles Stafford  4. The Emergence of Consumer Rights: Legal Protection of the Consumer in the PRC Michael Palmer  5. Powers of Imagination: The Role of the Consumer in China's Silent Media Revolution Kevin Latham  6. Changing Tastes in Guangzhou: Restaurant Writings in the late 1990s  Jakob Klein  7. On (not) Eating the Dead: Reader's Digest of a Chinese Funerary Taboo Stuart Thompson  8. Images of the Chinese: Photography and Consumerism in 1990s Hangzhou John Bayne  9. Fashions and Feminine Consumption Harriett Evans  10. Wong Kar-wai's Sensuous Histories Luke Robinson  11. The Consuming or the Consumed? Virtual Hmong in China Nicholas Tapp  12. Afterword: Reflections on China, Consumption and Cultural Change Kevin Latham