炫耀式消費的概念在19世紀被凡勃倫提出,但作為消費現象,它在中國有著更加深遠的歷史:管仲和范仲淹都曾倡導炫耀式消費以促進經濟的發展。在發展模式及消費方式上,炫耀式消費在當代中國呈現出與西方并不完全一致的特征。經濟因素之外,消費活動演變為炫耀行為的主要原因來自于消費品的符號價值,炫耀消費也因著與符號價值的同一性進入公共空間,在消費消費者的同時被圍觀和工具(政治)化。在身份流動不居的當代消費社會,傳統儒家思想中對社會等級和等級消費制度的維護成為了炫耀式消費的文化無意識。

To adequately understand contemporary conspicuous consumption in China,one needs to put it in a historical background and look at it not only from an economic perspective but also from cultural and political points of view. Both China and the West have had the phenomenon of conspicuous consumption at different historical periods,which,in their own ways,have constituted different cultural and political narratives and have demonstrated in them different characteristics. Three Confucian values that affect Chinese people’s consumption of luxurious commodities—namely,maintaining consistency between behavior and status,family reputation and the awareness of other people’s influence—are the cultural reasons that distinguish Chinse conspicuous consumption from that of the Western mode.