China: Hyper-Consumerism, Abstract Identity
Abstract
Is the 21st century the Chinese century? Westernization has changed nearly all facets of life in China, except for politics (Wu, 2009). This has created mass-confusion, enthusiasm, rebellion, romanticism, and idealism. The 1990s manufacturing industries continued to dominate the acceleration of consumerism in the 21st century and created, more than ever, a bizarrely giant, abstract world of identity that is self-created and sustained. This paper examines the politics of abstract desire, hyper-consumerism, and the notion of fantasy in the Chinese fashion industry. Today, hundreds of giant “hyper-malls” found all over China are connected to the distribution of fake “stuff.” These commercial emblems have become an integral part of China’s visual and social landscape. The marketplace of fake goods using Western brand images (e.g. logos) has grown for centuries to become an abstract superstructure of falsely branded lifestyles and design integrity. The global rise of hyper-consumerism gave China the ultimate opportunity to create a new identity for itself while importing the dream of luxury: The Buying Power. This paper focuses on abstracting the notion of hyper-consumerism and interrogating the relationship between visual advertisement, its materiality, and its representation in the global marketplace. How does advertising contribute to the production of consumer goods? Can we create a cyclical vision for new materials? How is the value of luxury created, displaced, transformed, and consumed through space and time?
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