Materialism in China now and some thought extended

alberty111 | March 5, 2022, 12:50 p.m.

In this post, I want to talk about materialism in China and some of the thoughts extended from that.

I have been back to China for about a year and half now, and been working for more than a year. As I spend my first 20+ years in China growing up in a north-east city, materailism has truck me occasionally. In my home town, rich tend to dress in mink coat in winter(around 2000s) and drive in fancy luxury cars to to show their social status. Growing up, I always despise the very act on this shallow show of money or power. Yet I haven't really thought about the phsycology behind this. Until recently, after coming back from France,  I have noticed the bright contrast between China and France in materialism. In the following, I would like to express my thought on this with some great scholar papers' help.

Current materialism in China:

So one thing I have noticed since I was a child is that you can immediately identify a rich man from a crowd just by watching what he/she is wearing or driving. But on the contrary, it is not that easy in France. In China also, when relatives or family members got together, it is never a weird thing to ask how much you earn (westerns might find this is very private infomations). Money or things coming along with money seems to be a symbolic of success and happiness. The culture in China right now, money trumps everthing.

Studies on materialism in China:

There is one interesting paper from Jiangqun Liao¹  discussing about the material value in eastern culture. Because of the cultural tendency of holistic thinking, the social value of one is normally defined by other's opinion or view on oneself. So very easily, the showing of social status by wearing fancy clothes, accesories, driving luxury cars is a very effective and straightforward way.

Digging deeper, holistic thinking? Eastern vs Western thinking pattern differences?

I mention the holistic thinking as one of the root cause for this kind of materialism in China. Where does it come from, the concept of holistic thinking, actually Nisbett, E² published one paper about the difference in thought between eastern and western world. The author believes that the difference can date back to acient Greek and China. Acient China tend to get knowledge by experience while acient Greek develop the habbit of abstract analysis. So easterns tend to explain things in collective number of factors. Similarly valueing someone from observing what he/she is wearing. 

Wrapping up:

So this post is far from being complete on the problem of materialism in China nowadays. I always wonder the severe materialism happening right now in China is only a phase or it will develop into some seriouse social problem. I sincerely hope this is only some society reaction of fast economy growth and will fade away shortly. The impetuous culture will misled youngster and poison the future. 

References:

1. Liao, Jiangqun, and Lei Wang. "The structure of the Chinese material value scale: An Eastern cultural view." Frontiers in psychology 8 (2017): 1852.

2. Nisbett, Richard E., et al. "Culture and systems of thought: holistic versus analytic cognition." Psychological review 108.2 (2001): 291.

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