Furnishing the Home in Qing Yangzhou: A Case for Rethinking “Consumer Constraint”

Abstract

Debates born of the flourishing field of consumption studies in the West for the most part await developed responses from China. Consumption history is now a whole sub-field of European history. In Chinese history, it has over a period of two or more decades been only very slowly emerging as a minor theme, and coverage is patchy. Luxury consumption in the late Ming is a well-documented phenomenon, but prominent Western scholars of the Qing, including R. Bin Wong and Kenneth Pomeranz have tended to view consumption in that era as simply marking time. Intensive local studies are needed before a more persuasive generalization on thie question is possible. In contrast to the picture provided b..