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Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living Shanghai unveils The Dynamics of Chinese People 2024

Using consumption to affirm and reconstruct identity and increase self-esteem

Tokyo—January 16, 2025—Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living Shanghai (HILL Shanghai) unveiled the 12th set of findings from its The Dynamics of Chinese People research project jointly conducted with the School of Advertising at the Communication University of China.

The research theme for this year was “Not Just Emphasizing Value for Money and Downgrading: New Portents of Consumption Behavior Among Chinese Sei-katsu-sha*.” The keyword in Chinese society in 2024 was “consumption downgrading.” In an economic environment where the future is uncertain, Chinese sei-katsu-sha (Hakuhodo’s term for the holistic person) have adopted a consumption behavior of emphasizing value for money across all categories. Products and services that combine low prices with a certain level of quality are increasing, discount stores are everywhere, and price competition between companies is intensifying. The conditions that make it easy for Chinese sei-katsu-sha to downgrade their consumption are in place, and an increasing number of them are enjoying shopping for low-priced goods.

However, from analysis of digital payment app usage data, it appears that what is happening is not necessarily a single-minded pursuit of cost-cutting, as the number of sei-katsu-sha whose spending has increased is roughly the same as the number whose spending has decreased, and there are also categories in which the number of people whose spending increased exceeds the number whose spending decreased. HILL Shanghai decided to focus on new consumption behaviors among Chinese sei-katsu-sha that are certainly emerging, even though they are difficult to discern in the shadows of the major trends of emphasizing value for money and consumption downgrading.

HILL Shanghai’s research uncovered new consumption behaviors such as shopping for the purpose of reaffirming one’s abilities and individuality; coming up with comprehensive rationales for following through with one’s original purchase intentions, despite the frugal mood in society; and gifting and buying things to support someone else so as to discover a version of oneself that is useful to others. The think tank named such consumption behaviors, where purchases are used to affirm and reconstruct the purchaser’s identity and increase their self-esteem, Zìzhù xiāofèi, meaning “self-building consumption.”

At the January 15 launch event for The Dynamics of Chinese People 2024, HILL Shanghai introduced the new consumption behaviors that Chinese sei-katsu-sha are beginning to adopt and the new consumption attitudes that are beginning to emerge even amid the growing consumption downgrading mood in society, using data and specific examples. It also proposed suggestions on new marketing activities that may become necessary as Zìzhù xiāofèi becomes more apparent.

For the report distributed at the launch (available in Japanese, English, and Chinese), please contact HILL Shanghai at: sei-katsu-sha.info@hakuhodo-shzy.cn

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