浅析中美消费观念的差异

On the Difference of Sino-American Consumption Concepts

[Abstract] In recent years, with the influence of western consumption options to China, especially American consumption, most Chinese people almost agree with the saying that ―high incomes, high consume level, and high quality of life‖. Some advertisements always show us that pursuing goods is the symbol of perfect life. Some propaganda makes the consumer forget the true significance of consumption, which is to fulfill personal need. But they deliberately pursue personal status, position and taste. It not only exists in the range of the high-income people, but in the young generation, who has low income, but also is ready for high consumption in the future. Considering this question, we should not neglect the background knowledge of these two countries. Chinese family ethics are based on human relations, they take emotion for the law to deal with family relationships. Chinese people ties to each other with blood as basic coordinates of blood. For American families, individual is the foundation, and individual is the supreme value, and it does not rely on others to exist, independent of the family relationship. Speaking of the reality, both the economic systems in the two countries are also different, so the mature degree of expense credit is also different. Therefore, the styles of consumption in US are probably not suitable for the Chinese people. Undoubtedly, America has its own advantages in some aspects; so we should consciously draw on the experience of America, not blindly follow the American.

[Key Words] historical development; family education; tourism consumption; high consumption; social security system

浅析中美消费观念的差异

【摘要】近年来，受以美国为代表的西方消费主义的生活方式的影响，我国居民不论收入水平的高低对―收入越高，消费的商品越多，则生活越富裕，并且生活质量越高‖有着普遍的认同。大家开始盲目的去追求高消费，那到底我们是否应该毫无保留的摈弃我们的传统美德，一味的去追求美国等西方国家的高消费呢？这是值得我们思考的。考虑这个问题。我们不得不离开它的背景知识去看。就中国而言，偏远的地理位置，相对封闭的环境，以及气候适宜的农耕区域，造成了中国人求稳的心理和好静的性格，靠天吃饭，一旦天气有什么变化就会影响生活，所以就不得不留点以备不时之需。反观美国，一个移民国家，人民多少具有

开拓冒险精神，不会固守，而且它是一个新兴的工业国家，几乎没经过传统农业的时期，因此它没有那种存钱的观念。其次，双方的家庭道德教育也有所不同也造成观念上的不一致。中国的家庭道德教育，以人伦为基础，以情感和情理为法则处理家庭人际关系。而美国则推崇以个人为中心，以理性的基本原则对待家庭成员和家庭事务。就现实而言，两国的经济体制也不同，中国未必适合美国的那种消费方式。当然，不可否认，在某些方面美国是有它的优势的，因此我们不能盲目的跟从，而是有意识的借鉴。

【关键词】历史发展; 家庭道德教育; 旅游消费；高物质消费; 社会保障体系

1. Introduction

In recent years, with the influence of western consumption, especially American consumption, Chinese inhabitants almost agree with one saying, ―High income, high consumes level and high quality of life‖. Some advertisement always shows us that pursuing merchandise is the symbol of perfect life. Some propaganda makes the consumer forget the true significance of consumption, which is used to fulfill personal need. But they deliberately pursue personal status, position and taste. It not only exists in the range of the high-income people, but in the young generation, who have low income but also is ready for high consumption in the future.[1]

Why such situation appeared? We should not ignore the background knowledge of the two countries. After realizing these, we can get a conclusion that although there are

many-advanced aspects in America, we also should not pursue blindly, because it cannot separate from the factual. In China, economy develop imbalance and the culture is different. What we should do is to enhance the economy and improve the quality of people’s life. And for consumption, we should take moderate and reasonable consumption.

There are mainly three parts in the paper: firstly, to review the background knowledge of the two countries, which including histories and ethics; secondly, to analyze the education, entertainment, fashion and so on to show the different consumption levels; finally, to get a conclusion of the whole paper that is not to pursue the high consumption blindly.

2. Background knowledge

2.1 Histories

There is no doubt that there are some historical reasons for the different consumption.