How to talk about saving and conscious spending in the era of “consumption downgrade”
“Changing from frugality to extravagance is easy, but going from extravagance to frugality is hard,” Sima Guang (司马光), a politician from the Northern Song dynasty (960 – 1127), summarized over 1,000 years ago. Today, Chinese society is facing exactly this challenge.
In the not-so-distant past, China was noted for conspicuous consumption fueled by “tycoon (土豪 tǔháo)” mentality, ubiquitous “buy buy buy (买买买 mǎi mǎi mǎi)” culture, and the trend of “overt displays of wealth (炫富 xuànfù).” However, according to data firm Syntun, this year, sales during “618,” China’s second largest shopping festival where online and offline merchants offered deals and promotions from late May to June, declined for the first time since the event was launched in 2008.
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