Drawing on evidence from Anshan City, Liaoning Province, the People’s Republic of China, we argue that the recent commodification and proliferation of idyllicized representations of rurality, a trend that runs directly counter to the symbolic infrastructure of China’s mass urbanization and industrialization, indicates a paradigm shift in Chinese consumer perceptions. We explore a theory of the ‘Romantic reappraisal of Chinese consumer values’, drawing upon the reappraisal of values ascribed to the ‘Romantic period’ which followed the industrial revolution in Britain and Western Europe in the late 18th century. Similarities and differences with this earlier shift are explored. One of the authors has spent several lengthy periods of ethnographic investigation in Anshan since 2005, drawing on networks from a wide range of social spheres.
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