{"id":41157,"date":"2011-11-04T11:30:51","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T16:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=41157"},"modified":"2012-01-08T15:13:28","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T20:13:28","slug":"china-and-the-new-luxury-consumer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/11\/04\/china-and-the-new-luxury-consumer\/","title":{"rendered":"China and the New Luxury Consumer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Cross-posted at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bytesofchina.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bytes of China<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Oh how this Toyota Highlander advertisment is reflective of the new global order.\u00a0 I saw this picture in Guangzhou&#8217;s domestic terminal. A Chinese couple is getting out of their Japanese brand car into what appears to be a private yacht. A white male greets them, taking their travel items and appears to be eager in their service.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/10\/111.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41158\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/10\/111.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"428\" height=\"428\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/10\/111.jpg 612w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/10\/111-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/10\/111-500x500.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 428px) 100vw, 428px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This advertisement reflects a new Chinese imaginary &#8212; one that is global, expansive, unlimited, and exploratory. It also tells us who has the power to live out this imaginary. Ten years ago or even five years ago, I don&#8217;t think this advertisement would&#8217;ve existed. But now companies have turned to the Chinese consumer, encouraging them to participate in this lifestyle. The entire global economy right now depends on the Chinese elite and middle-class to spend. But how long can this go on for until we see the next crisis? For how long can each system create &#8220;value&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/triciawang.com\" target=\"_blank\">Tricia Wang<\/a> is an ethnographer, sociologist, and researcher. She is on a Fulbright in China observing how digital technologies are mediating new conceptions of information and desire among youth &amp; migrants. She is a student at UC San Diego&#8217;s PhD Sociology program. \u00a0She blogs at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bytesofchina.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bytes of China<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Benjamin B. for the tip!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cross-posted at\u00a0Bytes of China. Oh how this Toyota Highlander advertisment is reflective of the new global order.\u00a0 I saw this picture in Guangzhou&#8217;s domestic terminal. A Chinese couple is getting out of their Japanese brand car into what appears to be a private yacht. A white male greets them, taking their travel items and appears [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[229,36,98,64,1772,285,1759,1757,307],"class_list":["post-41157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-consumption","tag-economics","tag-capitalism","tag-globalization","tag-nation-china","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-asianspacific-islanders","tag-raceethnicity-whiteseuropeans","tag-traveltourism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41157"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43603,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41157\/revisions\/43603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}