The Consumer Revolution in Urban China - Studies on China
The Consumer Revolution in Urban China - Studies on China
paperback
Published:
3 February, 2000
paperback
Published:
3 February, 2000
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Description
After decades of egalitarian, restricted consumption, residents of China's cities are surrounded by a level of material comfort and commercial hype 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, while explicitly rejecting any notion that economic reforms would promote political change. However, by the early 1990s the reforms in the marketplace not only produced double-digit growth but also enabled ordinary citizens to nurture dreams and social networks that challenged official discourse and conventions through millions of daily commercial transactions. Using participant observation, contributors to this book describe and analyze a wide range of these changing consumer practices: luxury housing, white wedding gowns, greeting cards, McDonald's, discos, premium cigarettes, bowling, and more.
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9780520216402 |
| ISBN10 | 0520216407 |
| Number Of Pages | 379 |
| Item Weight | 590 g |
| Product Dimensions | 152 x 229 x 25 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | University of California Press |
| Format | paperback |
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Media Reviews
The definite book on China's consumer revolution. The volume examines how, during the past decade of market reform, China's growing private consumerism is replacing the Maoist egalitarian society oriented toward goods provided publicly or in the workplace. --Choice
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Author's Bio
Deborah S. Davis, Professor of Sociology at Yale University, is the author of Long Lives: Chinese Elderly and the Communist Revolution (1991) and coeditor of Chinese Society on the Eve of Tiananmen (1990), Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era (California, 1993), and Urban Spaces in Contemporary China: The Potential for Autonomy and Community in Post-Mao China (1995).