The Long March of the Commodity in China 1

This chapter charts the complicated development of consumer culture in China. It begins with the influence of Confucianism in dynastic times and explores the burgeoning consumer culture of the Republican era, the pause on consumerism under Mao’s regime, and the nuanced position of consumerism within China since Deng Xiaoping opened up the country to the West in the late 1970s. In doing so, the chapter explains the roles of nationalism, the rural-urban divide, and the generational divide and explores the interpretations of modernity and individualism that are playing out. It posits consumerism as a complicated and long march, playing upon Mao’s “long march” across China.