Research on Consumption and Consumer Behavior in the Forming Process of China's Mass Consumption Society

本文旨在通过对经济水平不同的城市地区消费者的生活和行为的调查，阐明中国大众消费社会的形成过程，关于在市场经济发展过程中，社会和经济是如何运动的，大众消费社会是如何形成的等问题。本次调查采用问卷调查的方式，随机抽取各城市经济发展水平的1800户家庭进行调查。这些城市从大城市、区域城市到小城市，共9个城市/地区。(距北京最近的最大沿海城市天津市、东北老煤矿城市山西省阜新市、河北小煤矿城市承德市及其周边农村小城镇、太原栾平县和新煤矿城市、山西朔州市、贵州西南少数民族聚居区小煤矿城市凯里市、昆明市、云南省西南部的省会城市，广东省市场经济发展最快的城市深圳市)。在每个城镇随机抽取了200户家庭。在进行这项调查的同时，也完成了定性调查和研究。两种方法的重获率均达99%，获得了高质量的广谱调查结果。收集到的数据被带回日本进行分析。从20世纪90年代和2004 - 2005年的时间比较角度，进行了城市间比较、国际比较和分析。中国大众消费社会的形成过程与欧美、日本不同。城市与收入的差距比20世纪90年代更大，但“中等收入阶层”迅速增加。其特点是消费者在追求更高的欲望满足。自2004年以来，城市和收入阶层之间的差距越来越小，区域城市、小城市的消费需求与大城市一样，正在从消费的重点从必需品转向奢侈品，从商品转向服务，从数量转向质量。少

This paper aims to clarify the forming process of mass consumption society in China through conducting the survey on consumer's life and actions in urban areas where the economic levels are different, regarding this questions, such as, during the market-oriented economic development process, how the society and economy move, how the mass consumption society forms.This survey was conducted through questionnaire investigations of 1800 households sampled randomly in the economic development level from various cities picked at random. These cities range from big cities, regional cities to small cities, altogether 9 cities/ regions. (Tianjin Municipality, the biggest coastal city which is nearest to Beijing, Fuxin City, an old colliery city of Laoning Province, Northeast of China, Chengde City, a small one of Hebei Province and its peripheral rural small towns, Luanping County Taiyuan City and a new colliery city, Shuozhou City in Shanxi Province, Kaili City, a small one where is the ethnic … More minority residential area in Southwest Guizhou Province, Kunming City, capital city of Southwest Yunnan Province, Shenzhen City, where the market-oriented economy developed most rapidly in Guangdong Province). 200 households were randomly sampled in each city or town. While this survey was being conducted, the qualitative survey and research were also completed. The recapture rates of these two kinds of survey were 99%, and high quality of survey results in broad spectrum were obtained. The collected data were brought back to Japan, and analyzed. From the views of time comparison between the period 1990s and the period from 2004 to 2005, the comparison among cities, international comparison, and the analysis is conducted.The forming process of China's mass consumption society was different with Europe, America and Japan. The gaps between cities and income were larger than 1990s, but the "middle-income brackets" increased rapidly. It was characterized that consumers were in hot pursuit of higher satisfaction of desire. Since 2004, the gaps between cities and income layers are becoming smaller, the consumer need in regional city, small city, same as big city, is transferring importance of disbursement from essential products to luxury articles, from goods to services, and from quantity to quality. Less