Consumer Culture in China: Consumption Face

“Face” in China is one of the country’s most traditional social and cultural factors. Generally, “Face” in Chinese social life represents the image of a person’s social self (through the thesis I will use Face with a capitalised F to represent this specific concept). Many studies have indicated that in China Face influences consumption, and specifically, relates it to conspicuous consumption (Bao, Zhou, & Su, 2003; J. J. Li & Su, 2007; Monkhouse, Bradley R, & Stephan, 2012; N. Wong, Y. & Ahuvia, 1998). However, Chinese Face is a very general concept. This thesis specifically classifies which type of Chinese Face particularly influences consumption among other types: moral Face (Lien), social Face (Mien-tzu), renqing Face and interaction Face. These are types of Face that are referred to in existing studies and research. I name the type of Face that relates to consumption, “Consumption Face”. The aim of my study is to clarify the influence and role of Consumption Face on Chinese consumption patterns, the mechanism by which these patterns take place, and also consider how they will develop in future. I review the geopolitical nature of China as well as Chinese culture from ideology to values and norms, and in particular, the socio-political changes that occurred after the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China as background regarding the formation of Face and the place of consumption in current Chinese life. The recent rapid development of consumption in China and social needs in modern China increase the importance of identifying and conceptualising Consumption Face. This is from the basis that Chinese tend to strive for self-actualisation by using consumption to signal their social status and wealth. To do this on the basis of a broad literature review, this thesis aims to define Consumption Face and to develop a three-dimensional construct of it as a foundation for further analysis. Following the trend of globalisation and commercialisation after the late-1970s when China opened its economy, Chinese people were considered, or hypothesised by Western scholars and others, to be more Westernised. Young Chinese especially are now considered to be more individualistic, and thus less influenced by Face than was the situation in the former traditional collectivistic Chinese society. To study the influence of Consumption Face on consumption now and in the future, I conducted a series of studies to answer two questions: 1. To what extent does Consumption Face influence purchase decisions between different categories of products and brands? 2. To what extent does the influence of Consumption Face on purchase decisions differ between young consumers and preceding generations? To do this, I developed a Consumption Face Influence (CFI) measurement. I used this measurement construct to test different age cohorts for their consumption behaviour in regard to the purchase of luxuries and necessities. This test crossed the contexts of public consumption and private consumption. The test was also applied to measure CFI across the contexts of product categories and brands. The findings do not support the hypothesis that young Chinese consumers are less influenced by Consumption Face than their parents and older generations. CFI was even stronger for young Chinese than for their preceding generation for luxury consumption. The results also reveal that the dominant motivation for Chinese conspicuous consumption is not conspicuousness, but instead conformity. Simply using theories formulated by Western scholars to understand Chinese consumer behaviour may be misleading. Consequently, from a practical perspective, trading with China, doing business with Chinese, and undertaking marketing targeted at China, could and should engage and apply knowledge of Chinese consumption behaviour and understand behaviour related to Face. This thesis contributes to marketing literature by identifying and conceptualising a new type of social influence toward consumption patterns which is becoming vital in China but which tends to be overlooked due to its implicit attribute. My research verifies that Consumption Face exists and profoundly influences the purchasing behaviour of young modern Chinese. It also contributes to the Face research field by classifying different types of Face for future relevant research to help specify their research scope, and by adding one more conceptualisation to the theory: Consumption Face. The conceptualisation of Consumption Face provides a new tool to investigate and analyse Chinese marketing phenomena, both as applied by them and applied to them, within substantial and sound interpretive dimensions. The tool could complement relevant research that applies Western developed concepts. This thesis suggests a developed measurement set of CFI that can help further research in the future; not only the research of Chinese in China, but also research applying to Chinese immigrants in overseas countries as well as to cross-cultural studies applied to other ethnicities

How to select patients and timing for rectal indomethacin to prevent post-ERCP pancreatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Egger’s publication bias plot. (TIF 998 kb

Leak location based on PDS-VMD of leakage-induced vibration signal under low SNR in water-supply pipelines

Leak location in water-supply pipelines is of great significance in order to preserve water resources and reduce economic losses. Cross-correlation (CC) based leak location is a popular and effective method in water-supply pipelines (WSP). However, with a decrease of signal to noise ratio (SNR), the errors of time-delay estimation (TDE) based on CC will become larger making it almost impossible to determine a leakage position. Hence, this work proposes leak location based on a combination of phase difference spectrum and variational mode decomposition (PDS-VMD) of leakage-induced vibration signal under low SNR for WSP. Firstly, the leakage-induced vibration signal is decomposed into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) by VMD, where the characteristic frequency band is determined by PDS of cross spectrum of two leakage signals. Then, the energy ratio of leakage signal in characteristic frequency band serves as a guideline to select effective IMF components from the decomposed IMFs. Finally, the selective IMFs are reconstituted into a new signal which can be used to determine a leak position using CC based TDE. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed leak location algorithm, the method based on PDS-VMD is compared with that using CC, combination of CC coefficient and VMD (CCC-VMD) using both simulation and experiment. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed PDS-VMD method is more suitable for leak location in WSP, which provides immunity to both broadband and narrow band noise under low SNR. © 2020 IEEE

Three-dimensional sedimentation patterns of two interacting disks in a viscous fluid

The sedimentation of two spherical solid objects in a viscous fluid has been extensively investigated and well understood. However, a pair of flat disks (in three dimensions) settling in the fluid shows more complex hydrodynamic behaviors. The present work aims to improve understanding of this phenomenon by performing Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) and physical experiments. The present results show that the sedimentation processes are significantly influenced by disk shape, characterized by a dimensionless moment of inertia I*, and Reynolds number of the leading disk Re. For the flatter disks with smaller I*, steady falling with enduring contact transits to periodic swinging with intermittent contacts as Re increases. The disks with larger I* tend to fall in a Drafting-Kissing-Tumbling (DKT) mode at low Re and to remain separated at high Re. Based on I* and Re, a phase diagram is created to classify the two-disk falling into ten distinctive patterns. The planar motion or three-dimensional motion of the disks is determined primarily by Re. Turbulent disturbance flows at a high Re contribute to the chaotic three-dimensional rotation of the disks. The chance for the two disks to contact is increased when I* and Re are reduced.Comment: 51 pages, 28 figure