“Guardare un leopardo da una canna di bambù”: la generazione cinese post-'80 tra individualismo e consumo=The Self-exhibition: Chinese post '80 generation between individualism and consumption

Abstract

The Self-exhibition: Chinese post '80 generation between individualism and consumption. The gap between State's redistributive economy and a new economy of consumption (which is encouraged by the State itself) produced in China a gap that led to two new subjectivities: a reaffirmation of individuality in the network of informal relations, and in parallel a new free and universal individual (Yang, 1994, p. 245), a new form of individualism that combines global processes (in particular the culture of consumption) with local practices. The process of individualization of Chinese society, initiated by the economic reforms of the 80s and then by increased social mobility, seems to have been more a social change than a political one. Consumption (and media consumption), is seen as a negotiation, shaped by the socio-political and economic conditions and by the agency of consumers: a practice, a tactics through which individuals can appropriate, negotiate and re-formulate images and meanings.