Social Sciences in China, 2025

Vol. 46, No. 1, 2025

The Chinese Consumption Code from a Cultural Perspective

(Abstract)

Wang Ning

In the current context, where the roles of investment and exports in promoting economic growth are suffering a relative decline, the impact of household consumption on economic growth is increasingly striking. However, Chinese residents’ average propensity to consume and their consumption rate have long been low. Their consumption behavior differs from that of Western consumers in many respects, necessitating theoretical explanations for these differences. Exploring the motivations behind Chinese residents’ consumption and labor supply from a cultural perspective, the Confucian dual consumption ethic offers an effective explanatory path distinct from the Western Protestant ethic and the Romantic consumption ethic. This Confucian ethic not only explains why Chinese residents exercise self-restraint (“frugality”) in daily consumption for the sake of project-based consumption but also elucidates why residents expand their labor supply (“diligence”) during the modernization process, thereby facilitating a consumption-driven labor supply.

Keywords: economic traditionalism, Confucian dual consumption ethic, consumption tension, labor supply