| Consuming is both economic action and cultural form. It concerns the function of economic subsystem and cultural subsystem. The function process of the two subsystems includes diachronic historical change and development and contemporaneous mutual relation and influence. Therefore, the formation and development of consumer culture of each period will be influenced inevitably by the economic and cultural condition of the former period, and will interact with the contemporaneous economy and culture at the same time. So the consumer cultures of different periods present different characters. When the consumer culture can meet the needs of the economic development, it will improve the economy. But with the change and development of the status, the consumer culture will restrict the economic development until the consumer culture changes into new form. This is the interaction process of consumer culture and economic development.The interaction process of consumer culture and economic development in China is different with any western countries. "Country" plays a very important role in the process. China is an all-powerful country before the economic system.transformation. And after the transformation, "country" still plays a dominant role in the social development. So "country" is a key factor in the consuming problem in China. It is different with western country where market and capital play a dominant role. In China, consuming not only relates with the individuals but also with the country. Country is a special subject of idea and action, and it’s not abstract. It is represented by individuals with power. The country leaders especially the key leaders have great influence on the country’s idea and value orientation on the consuming problem. Country’s consuming ideology forms the country’s consuming idea culture. And country transforms the consuming ideology into consuming system arrangement, which forms the country’s consuming system culture.Country’s consuming ideology and consuming system arrangement are formed under definite historical conditions. In order to match the conditions, country transforms its consuming ideology into individual’s idea with different manners, and inducts individual to act according to country’s consuming ideology and restricts individual’s action with consuming system arrangement. The restriction is structural and can’t be exceeded. But to the individuals of the different social estates, the influence of the systems is different. It intensifies the differentiation of social estates and the consuming differentiation, forming the complicated consuming characters of China. However, individuals’consuming idea and action are not always consistent with country’s expectation, which shows that there are some problems with country’s consuming ideology and consuming system arrangement.From the building of new China till now, the consumer culture of China goes through three phases:the culture of "restraining consuming" in the period of planned economy, the culture of "moderate consuming" in the period of transformation from planned economy to market economy, and the culture of "encouraging consuming" in the period of market economy. The consumer cultures of the three phases show different characters.At the initial stage of new China, the economic condition was very bad, and our country faced severe international status. New China had to strength its power and consolidate the national defence, so established the strategic aim of "developing heavy industry firstly" and the consumer culture of "restraining consuming". Country made a series of system arrangement of "restraining consuming" in the private consuming area and offered welfare for free as a compensation, which could show country’s concern with people and the advantages of Socialism. Country inducted and shaped individuals’ idea and action of austerity through political work. In the period of the "Culture Revolution", "restraining consuming" came to extremeness, the national economy and people’s life were damaged severely, which caused the transformation of the culture of "restraining consuming".After the "Culture Revolution", Xiaoping Deng became the key leader of China. He was the chief designer of "Reform and Opening-up", having the great influence on the historical development of China. Xiaoping Deng realized that the high level of economic development and people’s life were important standard of success of reform. So he advised that country should take developing economy as the most important task. What’s more, Deng’s idea about market had great influence on country’s ideology. Country changed the consumer culture of "restraining consuming" into "moderate consuming". In this period, people’s life and consuming level were improved moderately. The consuming needs matched well with the economic development. Country initiated the "movement of liberating idea" to help people change their idea and action to match the culture of "moderate consuming". In 1992, market economy was established as the reform aim of China. And China’s economy began to develop rapidly from this year because of the increase of investment, which caused overmuch of commodity and labor force. Consuming deficiency became severe in China. At the same time, the Asian finance crisis of 1997 had great impact on the export of our country. Country’s consumer culture changed into "encouraging consuming". Country made a series of system arrangement of "encouraging consuming" in the private consuming area but the market orientation of the public consuming reform had great impact on people’s consuming. In this period, country changed the manner of shaping people’s idea and action from "preventing" into "guiding". What’s more, market and the foreign culture are also factors which can influence people’s consuming idea and action. So there are different kinds of consuming idea and action. As the people with middle or low level of income account for the main body, the traditional consuming idea and action occupy the main position, which is not consistent with the consumer culture of "encouraging consuming". It shows that there are some problems with country’s consuming ideology and consuming system arrangement.Country’s consuming ideology is historically continuous and country’s consuming system arrangement has path dependence. As a developing country, China always has the "urge of modernization", taking the rapid economic development as the first aim, but taking human as the means. Country changes the consumer culture from "restraining consuming" to "moderate consuming" and then to "encouraging consuming" because there are some troubles in the economic development. The logic of economic development deepens country’s understanding about the important function of consuming. However, country just takes consuming as the means of improving the economic development, and takes human as the consuming power but not the subject with rights. The principle of "taking efficiency as precedence" in the distribution of national income leads to unfairness. The interest gaming is not balanced. And the dualistic structure of urban and rural areas causes the enlarging gap between the rich and the poor. The social structure of estate is unreasonable, so the consuming is hard to grow, and the society is unstable. To solve the problems, country should change its orientation of taking economic development as the only aim, change its understanding of laborer and consumer, and change the governments’ function. In the period of all round transformation of China, social problems are complicatedly interlaced. So the problems in consumer culture concern many problems in other areas. The settlement of the problems needs the cooperation of many systems. Therefore, it’s rather difficult to adjust and reform the consuming system arrangement. So it’s a big challenge to the country, which must be faced.
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