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Today’s chinese fad consumption is col-
lective and individual

If the first national goods wave was for the surviv-
al of China, the impetus behind the current one is much
simpler and clearer: good look, strong interest, intrigu-
ing connotation, cheap price, so why not? Some attri-
bute this phenomena to the national wealth and cultur-
al confidence. If we only look at it from this single
dimension, it would be difficult to see the whole picture.
When the global pandemic broke out at the end
of 2019, the Chinese government took a series of
protective measures to control the movement in a bid
to reduce unnecessary travel. This resulted in a plum-
met in international, inter-provincial and inter-city
trips, while citizens spent increasingly more time
online for remote lessons, shopping, medical advice
and entertainment. The “cloud-based XX” became a
trend. The sound national cooperation supports Chi-
na to outperform most countries in epidemic control,
whether it was patient clearance or economic recov-
ery. In the global system, cultural confidence has
always been associated with economic development.
At the very beginning, the Chinese fad was not
positively popular.
The early mass application of Chinese elements
came from foreign luxury brands. To please the Chi-
nese market, some brands launched limited products
for Chinese New Year, which was opposite to the then
mainstream aesthetics in China including Japanese
minimalist style and Nordic normcore. The exagger-
ated foreign interpretation of Chinese elements was
mocked as “netherworld design”, until domestic
brands led by Li-Ning brought designs with Chinese
aesthetics to the international stage. The cultural
output excited Chinese consumers, marking the ad-
vent of Chinese fad 2.0. For a variety of reasons, the
public aesthetics of Chinese fad has changed drasti-
cally in recent years, from only acceptability of Li-
Ning’s minimalist design, to the concept of “extreme
corny is trendy”, and to the “renaissance” of y2k-style With a close look, we will find the Chinese
including the Tang and Song style popular on TV
shows. Even the previous niche elements have cap- fad under coffee and tea drinks more
tured a group of fans. This means that the Chinese
fad begins to show subdivision and inclusion. interesting. It can unify the taste of young
With a close look, we will find the Chinese fad
under coffee and tea drinks more interesting. It can people across the country, but also define
unify the taste of young people across the country,
but also define individual choice within a province individual choice within a province or a city.
or a city.

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