| Guangzhou Foreign Trade has a long history, the city’s rapid economicdevelopment reached its peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. After the Opium War,the adjustments of agricultural and industrial structure, further promoted thecommercial prosperity of the city. In the1920s, the implementation of the municipalsystem, improvement of information transport network, as well as social customsimproved movement, has injected new vitality to drive the innovation of commodityeconomy and consumer attitudes.This article based on newspaper advertisements and city development historicalmaterials, depicts the Guangzhou people’s daily life in the1920s, and discusses theinteractive relationship among advertising, consumer culture and social life.The study found that, in the Republican period, Western culture has been widelypenetrated into the social sphere such as the basic necessities of life, recreational andleisure. Tailor, Western food, cars, movies, parties became fashionable, gambling,pornography, superstition, and other abnormal consumption still occupied a largeproportion in people’s life. At that time,‘the Chinese and Western, the good and evilcoexist’ is the characteristics of Guangzhou consumer culture. Meanwhile, with thenarrative logic of ‘consume domestic products, pay attention to hygiene and the bodyis patriotic’, advertisements achieved the sales of goods, constructed the consumptionconcept, and eliminated the sanctity of patriotism. |
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