The Study Of Contemporary Chinese Problem Of Consumption Alienation

Consumption is the basic way of existence and behavioral attributes for all livingbeings including human beings, and it is the essential means for human life anddevelopment. But under the condition of market economy, alienation occurs inconsumption. Consumption, which aims to consume surplus goods produced by thedisorderly competition under the condition of social production, departs from its natureof human necessity to become the aim of human activity. But the upshot of the meansand purpose upside down is people’s infinite pursuit of material consumption andproduction, unlimited exploitation of natural resources, indifference to others andsocial care. Alienated consumption eventually becomes a huge block to the free andcomprehensive development of human beings.However, the contemporary China is duplicating and practicing this kind ofconsumption alienation, which is being allowed to become the biggest resistance to thesocial development of China towards the future. With China’s reform and opening up,people’s material living standards have been markedly improved, and our society ismoving from “food and clothing” towards a well-off one. However, Chinese people donot stop their steps because of “richness” they have got, they have much stronger hopefor the rapid growth of material wealth. So the leading development model incontemporary China since the reform and opening up features the materialmaximization as the value orientation, the rapid economic growth as the valuerealization, the market as the means, and the consumption as the driving force. Butonce people have been driven by the desire for material consumption, they will be soindulged in it that they can not show any solicitude towards other subjects’ interests innature and society. In order to maximize their own economic interests, they are at theexpense of other people or other creatures. So the predictable economic crisis,ecological crisis, social crisis, and the crisis of survival beyond the geographical space and ideological barriers appear in China, and have already become the predicament ofsurvival and development that China must confront.Obviously, it is not fully effective to solve the development difficulties incontemporary China only by relying on the law and system of external constraints. Because of the guidance of the ideological ideas and the restriction of the behavior ofthe people, any external force is powerless if people’s consumption concept is notchanged fundamentally. If “Consumption First” concept is not eliminated and theconsumption as the core value orientation of the society is not changed thoroughly, thesocial development pattern with consumption as the driving force cannot be converted;the people’s dissipation and waste behavior will never come to a stop. It is alsoimpossible for China to get out of the ecological crisis and to walk out of the currentdevelopment difficulties.Therefore, the awareness of consumption alienation in contemporary China andthe conversion of the current ideological concepts with consumption as the core are thekey solution to the ecological crisis and the realization of China’s smooth and rapideconomic and social development. Guided by the Marxism and the Scientific Outlookon Development, with the Chinese consumption behavior as the goal, this studyexamines the domestic residents’ consumption alienation, puts forward thecountermeasures of sublating alienation in consumption, thus tries to increase thecapacity of our residents to overcome the consumption alienation; to promote thesmooth transition of China’s economic and social development model, to focus on thebalance between “stimulus consumption” and “consumption alienation”, to ensure thesociety to develop in the direction of fairness and justice, to enhance the anti-riskability of crisis; to advocate much more diverse social evaluation model, to make thematerialized people return to the free man.With the ecological crisis and the development plight in China as the researchbackground, making use of position and viewpoint of Marxism and drawing on theexperience of Western consumption alienation theory, based on the related data of theresearch, the ultimate objective of the study is to analyze and reflect the phenomenonof China’s consumption alienation, explore the effective paths of co-existence inharmony and coordinated development between man and nature, man and man, manand society, eventually to realize the sustainable development of China.The paper consists of the following parts: The panper in Chapter1introducted: the background and significance of this topic;research objective and method; review of research status at home and abroad; thestructure, innovation and shortage of the paper; and some basic concepts andconnotation etc.The panper in Chapter2constructed the basic concepts and theoreticalfoundations. These basic researches include not only the consumption alienationthought reflected in Marx’s “alienation of labor” and “commodity fetishism”, but alsothe discussion on the alienation of consumption of the representative scholars in theFrankfurt school, ecological Marxism school and Post-Marxism school.The panper in Chapter3introduced the consumption alienation phenomenonexisting in the residents’ consumption behavior in China. Such phenomena ofconsuming alienation criticized by western scholars as conspicuous consumption,symbol consumption, luxury consumption, blind consumption occur at different levelsin China. Together with the special situation of China, some new features emerge, suchas, combined with Chinese“keen on face-saving”feature, there is a comparison of“face consumption”; Along with the characteristics of Chinese human society, amalformation of the human consumption takes place, and etc.The panper in Chapter4analyzed the deep root of the generation and spread of theconsumption alienation in China. The gradual penetration of the alienation ofconsumption in Chinese society is the result of the interaction between the subjectiveand the objective. Objectively, the production of labor mode advocated by marketeconomy and free competition law are the inherent power of consumption alienation,and the developed productivity created by market economy constitutes the materialbasis of consumption alienation; subjectively, exotic consumerism culture is theideological roots of consumption alienation, and the hierarchy in Chinese traditionalculture and psychological adjustment in social transformation play an important role inthe emergence of consumption alienation.The panper in Chapter5discussed the hazard to Chinese society and the residentsby the spreading phenomena of consuming alienation. The scholars used to criticizethe negative effect of alienation of consumption from the angle of ecologicalenvironment deterioration. However, from the existing situation of Chinese society ofconsumption alienation, China’s domestic consumption alienation threatens not only the relationship between man and nature, but also the relationship between people andpeople, people and society. If these problems cannot be solved, the Chinese societywill face a variety of ecological, economic, cultural, and social crises simultaneously.All-round development of society and progress will be threatened, and what’s worse,the achievements of our decades of reform and development will be ruined.The panper in Chapter6elaborated on the path of sublating consumptionalienation. In the absorption of the theory of consumption alienation sublation ofwestern Marxism and with the reference to the experience of green consumption in thedeveloped countries, the ideas and measures to the problem of sublating the consumingalienation in Chinese society are explored. First of all, strengthen the management ofthe system, advocate green consumption, safeguard consumption equilibrium, intensifygovernment supervision and purify consumption environment. Secondly, in theconstruction of the consumption body, with the help of the media, correctly guideconsumption behavior, strengthen the construction of spiritual civilization, andimprove the quality of consumers and etc.