Consumer-citizens of China: the role of foreign brands in the imagined future China
In: Routledge contemporary China series 60
1.Imagining China, imagining brands --Foreign brands as global brands from the imagined West --Western and domestic brands as materials for realizing an imagined future China --Obscured state influence and consumer autonomy --Organization of the book --2.Rethinking popular notions of Chinese consumers' motives for responding to Western brands --The emulative motive for Western brand consumption --The patriotic motive for rejecting Western brands --Rethinking the primacy of the emulative motive for consuming Western brands --Rethinking "consumer nationalism" as synonymous with Western brand boycotting --Chinese consumers as active meaning makers --3.Highlighted moments in the history of branded goods in China --The emergence of branded goods in late imperial China --Branded goods in semi-colonial China of the early 20th century --Branded goods since gaige kaifang -- China's economic reform --Relevance of these past moments to present-day brand meanings --4.Foreign brands in China as global brands from the imagined West --Overview of research method --Data collection sites --Our data collection methods --Foreign brands as Western brands with distinguishing characteristics --5.Chinese national narratives and the meanings of Western brands --The West as experiential venue, Western brands as instruments of freedom --The West as imperialist oppressor, Western brands as instruments of domination --The West as subjugated, conquered Western brands as redemption --The West as economic partner, Western brands as instruments of economic progress --6.National narratives in imaginative processing of Western brand promotions --Imagined consumption --Individual psychological processes of enlivening consumption fantasies --Narratives and imagined identity transformations from Western brand consumption --The influence of national narratives of East-West relations on the processing of Western brand promotions --Discussion --7.Citizen-consumers in an age of globalization.