The Study On The Changes Of Chinese Middle Class’s Consumer Culture In The Context Of Social Transformation

The middle class is trying to provide a special position symbol and taste distinction for their consumer culture, and it has undergone the stages of burgeoning, starting and rapidly developing during the past three decades of social transformation, and it has gradually reflected the changes from irrationality to rationalization, from singularity to diversity, from elitism to popularity, from tradition to modernity, from present to future. The paper focuses on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of taste distinction to define the middle class as the characteristic group pursuing the common culture taste and life style within the same class based on certain economic power, those who are featuring by some common symbols such as the status-seeker, the symbol manipulator, the practitioner of cultural distinction and the follower and impellor of social fashion.The study has used the literature review and interviewing method to focus on the social meaning reflected by consumer culture and lifestyle, and explore the symbols changes and tendency of consumer culture represented by Chinese middle class. Thus, the paper considers that the consumer culture of middle class and social transformation are in a hand-in-hand process with mutual conditions and promotions. The development of Chinese market economy guided by the policy of reforming and opening up has created the material environment for the growth of middle class, and in turn, the growth has been coordinating with the evolution of consumer culture. Based on the cultural criteria and social meaning, the paper studies on the consumer culture and class consciousness including class identity and sense of belonging through Chinese middle class’s consumer habit through the perspective of lifestyle.Generally, lifestyle mainly includes social relations pattern (like social circle), material consumption and cultural consumption. The proportion of culture consumption is increasing with the stable increment of disposable income and consumption level. Therefore, the perspective of lifestyle will consider the consumption not as a pure individual psychological preference or rational choice, but exploring the underlying social-cultural factor to study its formation and transformation, the reasons which resulting in the transformation in the global and domestic context, and also the social function of transformation in middle class’s consumer culture, which will lead some reflection and discussion about the prospect of establishing a stable and healthy consumer culture in the context of Chinese consumer society in the long run.The conclusions summed up in the paper concerning the consumer culture changes of Chinese middle class are as following:Conclusion Ⅰ:There are two dimensions of external and internal momentum that drive the changes of middle class consumer culture. The external momentum shows in the global consumerism while the domestic social transformation in China promotes the consumption consciousness rise of middle class.Conclusion Ⅱ:The middle class consumer culture is functioning both positively and negatively. Present, it is negatively functioning in the impact on the mainstream cultural values made by leading role effect and social transmission mechanism and yielding the social stratification and exclusion. However, it will positively play the role of improving China’s standing and influence in the global consumer market with the steady maturity of consumer consciousness and behavior pattern of middle class.Conclusion Ⅲ:The Chinese middle class consumer culture has undergone the stages of burgeoning, starting and rapidly developing during the past three decades of social transformation, and it has gradually reflected the changes from irrationality to rationalization, from singularity to diversity, from elitism to popularity, from tradition to modernity, from present to future.Conclusion Ⅳ:There are also some problems reflected by the interviews, such as:(1) the fierce social competition impedes the avant-garde of consumption;(2) the uneven distribution of wealth limits the availability of various capitals;(3) the slowing social mobility makes the position of Chinese middle class less advantageous;(4) the weak identity within the middle class and the diversity of lifestyle choices.Finally, considering the abovementioned problems, the paper will look forward the future theoretical prospect in studying the construction of stable, healthy and reasonable consumer culture of middle class in the backdrop of consumer society in China.