ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the practices and conditions, such as embodiment that underlie the luxury consumption experience in urban China, to understand how Western brands contribute to the redefinition of urban social relations. It also explores the practices of tasting, savouring, signalling through which luxury brands are embraced as emblems of status and refinement. The chapter identifies the temporal, spatial, and social components that constitute experiential consumption of Western luxury brands. It examines urban Chinese consumers' desire for style and modernity exemplified by Western brands, and for accumulating professional, social and cultural capital through luxury consumption, as practised by the affluent, nouveau riche, and aspirational Chinese upper-middle class. The chapter provides a thorough understanding of the complexities and nuances inherent in luxury brand consumption in China. It argues that tasting and savouring, far from being private experiences, are rather completely social and learned—particularly so in China, given its long cultural history with Western luxury.
