uni'wissen 02-2012 ENG

Exquisite, an exquisite machine,” the sales clerk assures a married couple eying a cof- fee machine. In the store across the way, two young women cast yearning looks at a sweater from the collection of a French designer – if only cashmere weren’t so expensive. Just a few me- ters further along is a long succession of restau- rants, bookstores, jewelers, nail studios, cosmetic salons, and electronics stores. The shoppers are accompanied on their shopping tour by piped-in music and the constant drone of voices. With more than 1,000 stores, 20,000 employ- ees, and 230 elevators, the Golden Resources Shopping Mall in Beijing is one of the largest malls in the world – a temple of consumerism the size of 70 football fields. Men and women laden with shopping bags? Negative. Most people spend their time strolling from display window to display window and killing time at chain restau- rants like McDonald’s or Starbucks. “They might not spend a lot of money at the mega-mall, but they do consume,” says Dr. Lena Henningsen. “They take part in practices of everyday life and enjoy the atmosphere, the luxury, and the glam- our of expensive and sought-after products.” The Freiburg junior professor in Sinology is re- searching contemporary consumer culture in Chinese cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Nan- jing. The attractions include coffee specialties from American chains and overpriced noodle soups from a Japanese company. Such products are particularly popular with consumers, be- cause “the buyers know what to expect and the producers know what to offer in terms of price and quality.” The Sinologist also investigates popular novels, widely read blogs, and several popular Korean and Taiwanese television series and films. The consumer landscape in these large cities is paradoxical, says Henningsen. Al- though people are becoming more affluent, the social safety net is still not well developed, and many people do not have retirement or health in- surance. As a result, the products at the shop- ping malls often remain unsold, because many people have to save their money. “Most Chinese only spend a lot of money on a few select things: a car, a home, education for their children, and – out of necessity – the doctor.” The researcher has chosen a mixture of meth- ods from literary theory and ethnology. She com- bines readings and interpretations of cultural texts with interviews she conducted with visitors of chain restaurants in China. Why do they come here? How do they spend their time here? What do they like to order? “I’m not interested in what the people eat or drink. I want to know what it says about their cultural self-image when they assert: ‘Starbuck’s has my favorite coffee.’” A Space for Rendezvous Modern coffee specialties and fast food have established themselves as trend products almost all over the world in the past 20 years. In the ur- ban chaos of China, however, the chains that sell them have a special significance: “They are re- garded as romantic locations,” explains the re- searcher. In the novel The First Intimate Touch, for instance, a bestseller in both Taiwan and Chi- na, the author Cai Zhiheng tells the love story of two students who meet for their first rendezvous at a McDonald’s. According to Lena Henningsen, the book illustrates a phenomenon that began to change the forms of social expression available to young adults in late 1990s China. The private sphere was narrowly constricted in the People’s Republic in those years: Students shared a dorm room with several fellow students, and young The first McDonald’s restaurants in China were popu- lar places for rendezvous for years after they opened. Today children and older people are the most com- mon customers. Photo: BYTE RIDER/Flickr “Most Chinese only spend a lot of money on a few select things” Frappuccino, salted caramel mocha, iced latte: The American chain Starbucks serves coffee specialties designed to convey the atmosphere of the modern and elegant “West.” Photo: suttonls/Flickr Frappuccino, salted caramel mocha, iced latte: The American chain Starbucks serves coffee specialties designed to convey the atmosphere of the modern and elegant

uni'wissen 02-2012 ENG

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