China Made : Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation

by Gerth, Karl

• ISBN13: 9780674016545
• ISBN10: 0674016548
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-01
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

"Chinese people should consume Chinese products!" This slogan was the catchphrase of a movement in early twentieth-century China that sought to link consumption and nationalism by instilling a concept of China as a modern "nation" with its own "national products." From fashions in clothing to food additives, from museums to department stores, from product fairs to advertising, this movement influenced all aspects of China's burgeoning consumer culture. Anti-imperialist boycotts, commemorations of national humiliations, exhibitions of Chinese products, the vilification of treasonous consumers, and the promotion of Chinese captains of industry helped enforce nationalistic consumption and spread the message--patriotic Chinese bought goods made of Chinese materials by Chinese workers in factories owned and run by Chinese. In China Made, Karl Gerth argues that two key forces shaping the modern world--nationalism and consumerism--developed in tandem in China. Early in the twentieth century, nationalism branded every commodity as either "Chinese" or "foreign," and consumer culture became the place where the notion of nationality was articulated, institutionalized, and practiced. Based on Chinese, Japanese, and English-language archives, magazines, newspapers, and books, this first exploration of the historical ties between nationalism and consumerism reinterprets fundamental aspects of modern Chinese history and suggests ways of discerning such ties in all modern nations.

Table of Contents

Map, Table, and Figures	xiii
Introduction	1	(28)
The Elaboration of the Movement	5	(8)
"Chinese People Ought to Consume Chinese Products"	13	(11)
Overview	24	(5)
PART I CONTEXTS AND CASE STUDY
1 The Crisis over Commodities and the Origins of the Movement	29	(39)
Foreign Exposure	33	(7)
Symbolizing Lost Sovereignty	40	(9)
New Commodities as Conduits of Nationalism	49	(8)
The Ideological and Institutional Foundations of the Movement	57	(11)
2 Nationalizing the Appearance of Men	68	(57)
Ascribing Meaning to Men's Appearance During the Qing	74	(6)
The Visual and Economic Significance of Chinese Clothing	80	(3)
Late Qing Interpretations of Appearance	83	(5)
The Appearance of Revolution, 1898-1911	88	(5)
Nationalizing Appearance	93	(12)
Lobbying for National Clothing	105	(6)
The Legacy of Nationalistic Appearance Under the Republic	111	(14)
PART II CONSUMPTION AS RESISTANCE
3 The Movement and Anti-Imperialist Boycotts, 1905-1919	125	(33)
Institutionalization: The Anti-American Boycott of 1905	127	(4)
Early Anti Japanese Boycotts	131	(2)
"National Humiliation" and Consumption in 1915	133	(12)
The Movement and Continuity Between Boycotts	145	(1)
The Boycott of 1919	146	(12)
4 The Movement and Anti-Imperialist Boycotts, 1923-1937	158	(45)
Part I: Boycotts, 1923-37	159	(26)
Boycott of 1925: The May 30th Movement	168	(17)
Part II: Standardizing the Meaning of "National Products"	185	(18)
The Practical Problem of Determining Product "Purity"	187	(5)
The Formulation of National Products Standards	192	(2)
The National Products Standards of 1928	194
PART III THE EXHIBITIONARY COMPLEX
5 Nationalistic Commodity Spectacles	203	(43)
Remaking Commodity Spectacles for the Nation	205	(3)
Components of the Exhibitionary Complex	208	(14)
Creating Nationalized Exhibitions	222	(9)
Expansion Under the Nationalist Government	231	(15)
6 Creating a Nationalistic Visuality in the Exhibition of 1928	246	(39)
Making the Mythical	249	(3)
Profiting from a National Polity	252	(3)
The Preparations	255	(3)
Creating a Nationalized Space	258	(8)
Mass Mediated Spectacle	266	(3)
People and Products on Display	269	(4)
Communities of Commodities Within the Nation	273	(8)
Conclusion: A Commodity Nation	281	(4)
PART IV NATION, GENDER, AND THE MARKET
7 Nationalizing Female Consumers	285	(48)
The Image of the Consuming Woman	289	(20)
A Year in the Life of a Patriotic Female Consumer	309	(19)
Contesting Representations of Women as Treasonous Consumers	328	(5)
8 Manufacturing Patriotic Producers	333	(22)
National Products Movement Biographies	334	(3)
A Capitalist with Chinese Characteristics	337	(8)
The Limits of Patriotic Production	345	(10)
Conclusion	355	(16)
How Widely Elaborated Was the Movement?	358	(2)
A Meta-Movement	360	(3)
Nationalistic Consumerism Viewed from North America	363	(3)
Nationalistic Consumerism in Contemporary China	366	(5)
REFERENCE MATTER
Bibliography	371	(54)
Index	425