Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T09:15:42.613Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Frugal Modernity: Livelihood and Consumption in Republican China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2015

Margherita Zanasi
Get access

Abstract

This article examines the development of the Chinese discourse on consumption and standards of living from the early twentieth century to the implementation of the New Life Movement in the mid-1930s. During this period, the idea that China's economy was characterized by scarcity rather than growth—and thus was experiencing a different level of development from the industrialized West—caused Chinese intellectuals and officials to question the wisdom of adopting Western-style consumerist habits and “extravagant” standard of living. In this context, they struggled to find a balance between a supposedly universal model of economic modernization and China's particular nation-building and developmental needs. This early twentieth-century debate illustrates how nationalist and developmental perspectives hindered the adoption of liberal models of consumerist economy, marking the beginning of China's uneasy relationship with a free-market economy as well as a growing tension between urban consumerist trends and central planning. It also helped bring about new forms of frugal modernity that were to culminate in the New Life Movement.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 391 - 409
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Barlow, Tani. 2008. “Buying In: Advertising and the Sexy Modern Girl Icon in Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s.” In The Modern Girl around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization, ed. Eve Weinbaum, Alys, 288–316. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Zimin, Cai(Yuanpei). 1916. “Wenming yu shechi” [Civilization and luxury]. Lüou zazhi 7:1–3.Google Scholar
Ran, Chao. 1920. “Xiaofei fangmian de shehui gaozao” [The consumption aspect of social reform]. Jiefang yu gaizao 2(1):83–87.Google Scholar
Cochran, Sherman. 1999. Inventing Nanjing Road: Commercial Culture in Shanghai, 1900-1945. Ithaca, N.Y.: East Asia Program, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Cochran, Sherman. 2006. Chinese Medicine Men: Consumer Culture in China and Southeast Asia. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
De Felice, Renzo and Arthur Ledeen, Michael. 1976. Fascism: An Informal Introduction to Its Theory and Practice. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Dikötter, Frank. 2007. Things Modern: Material Culture and Everyday Life in China. London: C. Hurst.Google Scholar
Dirlik, Arif. 1975. “The Ideological Foundations of the New Life Movement: A Study in Counterrevolution.” Journal of Asian Studies 34(4):945–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bihui, Fan. 1934. “Lun jianyue yu shechi” [Discussing frugality and luxury]. Gongtong (April): 16–20.Google Scholar
Feinstein, Charles H., Temin, Peter, and Toniolo, Gianni. 2008. The World Economy between the World Wars. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferlanti, Federica. 2010. “The New Life Movement in Jiangxi Province, 1934–1938.” Modern Asian Studies 44 (5):961–1000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gandhi, Mahatma, and H. Desai, Mahadev. 1983. Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Garon, Sheldon. 1998. “Fashioning a Culture of Diligence and Thrift: Savings and Frugality Campaigns in Japan, 1900-1930.” In Japan's Competing Modernities: Issues in Culture and Democracy, 1900-1930, ed. Minichiello, Sharon A., 312–34. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Gerth, Karl. 2003. China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Gide, Charles. 1922. Consumers’ Co-operative Societies. Introduction and supplementary chapter by Peter Warbasse, James. Edited by Cedric Bright Long. New York: A. A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Gide, Charles, and Wang, Jianzu. 1929. Jite jingjixue [Gide's economics]. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan.Google Scholar
Gordon, Andrew. 2007. “Consumption, Leisure and the Middle Class in Transwar Japan.” Social Science Japan Journal 10(1):1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ran, Hao. 1927. “Yu lun yi ban: Shehui shechi” [Public opinion: Societal luxury]. Tongwenbao 2 (41):15 (1273).Google Scholar
Horowitz, Daniel. 1992. The Morality of Spending: Attitudes toward the Consumer Society in America, 1875-1940. Chicago: I. R. Dee.Google Scholar
Jieshi, Jiang. 1984a. “Xinshenghuo yundong gangyao” [Outline of the New Life Movement] (May 15, 1934). In Zongtong Jianggong sixiang yanlun zongji [Complete works of the late president Chiang Kai-shek], 30:154–70. [Taipei]: Zhongguo guomindang zhongyang weiyuanhui dangshiwei yuanhui.Google Scholar
Jieshi, Jiang. 1984b. “Xinshenghuo yundong dier qimude he gongzuo baogao yaozhi” [Important points on the objectives and work report of the New Life Movement in its second period] (February 19, 1936). In Zongtong Jianggong sixiang yanlun zongji [Complete works of the late president Chiang Kai-shek], 14:63–71. [Taipei]: Zhongguo guomindang zhongyang weiyuanhui dangshiwei yuanhui.Google Scholar
Jieshi, Jiang. 1984c. “Xinshenghuo yundong sanzhounian jinian gao quangguo tongbao shu” [Report to the Chinese people on the third anniversary of the New Life Movement] (February 19, 1937). In Zongtong Jianggong sixiang yanlun zongji [Complete works of the late president Chiang Kai-shek], 30:207–12. [Taipei]: Zhongguo guomindang zhongyang weiyuanhui dangshiwei yuanhui.Google Scholar
Jiancheng, Lai. 2006. Liang Qichao de jingji mianxiang. Lianjing xueshu congshu [The economic preferences of Liang Qichao]. Taipei: Lianjing chuban shiye gufen youxian gongsi.Google Scholar
Lanza, Fabio. 2010. Behind the Gate: Inventing Students in Beijing. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lears, T. J. Jackson. 1994. Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America. [New York]: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Jianhua, Li. 1931. “Shechi shenghuo zhi shehuixue de guancha” [Observations on luxury lifestyle and sociology]. Xuehui xuebao 2(4):1–11.Google Scholar
Gao, Ming. 1933. “Shijiu shiji xiaofei” [Nineteenth-century consumption]. Shangren gonglun 17:7–8.Google Scholar
O'Bryan, Scott. 2009. The Growth Idea: Purpose and Prosperity in Postwar Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paulicelli, Eugenia. 2004. Fashion under Fascism beyond the Black Shirt. Oxford: Berg.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Helen M. 2011. Keeping the Nation's House: Domestic Management and the Making of Modern China. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Yu, Shen. 1928. “Zhizu zai jie shechi shuo” [Discussing contentment in reducing extravagance]. Dianzheng zhoukan 5(3):1–3.Google Scholar
Shenbao. 1907. “Shengchan yu xiaofei xiangguan shuo” [Discussing the relationship between production and consumption]. 12419 (August 26): 2–3.Google Scholar
Nan, Shou. 1936. “Xiaofei jieyue” [Frugal consumption]. Qingnian yuekan 2(2):2–3.Google Scholar
Stearns, Peter N. 2006. Consumerism in World History. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yat-sen, Sun. [1924] 2006. “Sanmin zhuyi: Minsheng Zhuyi, disi jiang” [The three principles of the people: Fourth lecture on the principle of livelihood]. In Sun Wen xuanji [Collected works of Sun Yat-sen], Yat-sen, Sun and Huang, Yan, 654–70. [Guangzhou]: Guangdong renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Tawney, R. H. [1920] 2008. The Acquisitive Society. Charleston, S.C.: BiblioBazaar.Google Scholar
Tawney, R. H., and Wu, Zhizhuang. 1928. Jindai gongye shehui de bin li [The pathology of the modern industrial society]. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan.Google Scholar
Veblen, Thorstein. [1899] 2007. The Theory of the Leisure Class. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Veblen, Thorstein, and Inomata, Tsunao. 1925. Tokken kaikyū ron [Discussing the privileged class]. Tokyo: Shinkōsha.Google Scholar
Shiying, Wang. 1930. “Xiaofeipai yu shengchanpai” [The consumption faction and the production faction]. Jiangsu dangwu zhoukan 24:78–82.Google Scholar
Shiying, Wang. 1934. “Xiaofeizhe de faxian” [The discovery of the consumer]. Hezuo yuekan 6:3–5.Google Scholar
Weston, Timothy B. 2004. The Power of Position: Beijing University, Intellectuals, and Chinese Political Culture, 1898-1929. Berkeley Series in Interdisciplinary Studies of China, 3. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Peiqiong, Xie. 1916. “Jie shechi shuo” [Discussing the elimination of extravagance]. Zhonghua funüjie 2(5):2–3.Google Scholar
You chun, Xu. 1991. Minguo renwu dacidian [A dictionary of personalities in the Republican period]. Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yeh, Wen-Hsin. 2007. Shanghai Splendor: Economic Sentiments and the Making of Modern China, 1843-1949. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yiban. 1928. “Yiban de hua: Shechi de Zhongguoren” [Some general comments: The extravagant Chinese]. 6(1):148–51.Google Scholar
Ziyi, Yu. 1925. “Shechi” [Luxury]. Shenghuo 1:78–79.Google Scholar
Zanasi, Margherita. 2006. Saving the Nation: Economic Modernity in Republican China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Zhang. 1985. “Jiangxi nongcun fuwu shiye 1934-1945” [The rural service centers in Jiangxi]. In Kangzhan jianguoshi yanjiu taohui lunwen ji, 1937-1945 [Collected papers from the conference on the history of nation building in the period of the war of resistance against Japan, 1937-1945], 2:1035–57. Nangan: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo.Google Scholar
Shikang, Zhu. 1933. “Xiaofei yu minsheng” [Consumption and livelihood]. Shenghuo 2(3):4–5.Google Scholar