Contemporary Chinese Consumer Tendencies Study

Consumerism accompanied by Western consumer society is one of social thought regarding consumption unlimitedly as the core. It is a kind of consump-tion patterns and values which encourage people to expend material wealth and natural resources unscrupulously and unrestrainedly,and consider consumption as the highest purpose of life. The essence of consumerism is to maintain high consumption level of the life values and style in public life. Its purpose lies in the constant pursuit of an ultimate aim to meet the material and spiritual de-sires. Its target consumer is no longer the use value of the goods but the symbol value of goods. Consumerism is the consumption values with ethics defect. It e-liminates the human sense of responsibility to nature, society and others, resul-ting in the alienation of human nature, widening the gap between the consumer and hindering social equity and justice.With the economic globalization process and the strong expansion of the Western capitalist ideology, consumerism that dominated the mainstream of Western values spread throughout the world. China, in deepening reform and opening up and economic and social transition, which has been affected by con-sumerism produces the tendencies that also intensified:consumption luxury and deformity, symbol value is extremely publicized in material consumption, spir-itual consumption is tended to vulgarization and superficiality, people's cultural life being invading by "the spirit of commodity fetishism" and involving into the spiritual emptiness. At this stage our society is experiencing the social transi-tion, production-oriented society and consumption-oriented society co-exist. Due to the inadequate distribution system, the gap between rich and poor is growing, while the prevalence of the concept of consumerism exacerbated the polarization, resulting in social unfair. Excessive expansion of objects of desire, inspired by the concept of consumerism, make people immerse into consump-tion binge, and disregard for nature, for others, meanwhile the social responsi- bility to future generations. We should complete understand the seriousness of the consumerism tendencies, which seriously imperils people's health and over-all development, economic society's sustainable development and the protection of ecological environment. The disburdening of the ethical dilemmas and social crisis, caused by the consumerism tendency, not only rely on action, but mainly depend on changing people's value ideology and moral conception to converse people's consumption patterns and values. While criticize the Western consum-erism, we must actively construct a scientific consumer values and strengthen consumer education to make the society come into being good consumption at-mosphere, and be out of the plight of consumer tendencies.This paper divides into four major parts totally, the first deals with the connotation and the characteristic of the western consumerism, and its causes and effects. The second part comprehensively analyzes of the contemporary sta-tus of Chinese consumption tendencies. The third part discusses the social crisis and ethical dilemmas caused by the consumerism tendency. The fourth part point out that to get out of the plight of Chinese consumerism, we must con-struct a scientific consumer values to guide people to foster scientific consump-tion values, abandon consumerism, select scientific and rational consumption, form a good scientific consumption atmosphere in the whole society, clean up the consumerism crisis and promote the healthy development of our economy and society.