ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the generational contrast between those who lived through the Cultural Revolution and those who have come of age in the reform era and shows the influence of designer brands and a new pride in home ownership among those of the new middle class. Qian Zhi Ying is the epitome of the stylish Shanghainese working mother. Dressed in her Dolce and Gabbana jeans and Mickey Mouse T-shirt, the 30-year-old greets American visitors in her sunny, lemon-colored living room in one of the city's average income neighborhoods. Zhi Ying and her husband, Jiang Bin, typify the ambition, optimism and national confidence of the emerging capitalist class that is transforming the world's fastest-growing consumer society. Thanks to the economic reforms first introduced by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, this generation is living a lifestyle unimaginable as recently as 10 years ago.
