More China Daily. Aren't you bored yet, urban Chinese, they have at least one of four things they want................
Affluent Chinese air buying power
Date: 02/14/97
Author: Wang Hui
Page: 4
LIU Li bought a personal computer for 12,000 yuan ($1,440), one-third of her family's savings.
Keen on writing poems and prose in her spare time, she wanted to be better equipped for literary creation.
Liu's four-year-old son has already showed great interest in the computer's English teaching programme.
Anyone who does not know how to use a computer will be considered illiterate in the next century, Liu said.
Thanks to reform and modernization, Chinese people are now able to take part in the trends sweeping the rest of the world.
They are not only mentally ready to accept new things but financially capable of acquiring them.
PCs, video cameras, VCD players and fax machines, once unattainable luxuries, have appeared one after another in the homes of ordinary people.
The great changes in people's consumer spending patterns go hand in hand with China's economic development.
Before 1978, family necessities consisted of a bicycle, sewing machine, wristwatch and radio. When young people set up home, getting these "four big pieces" was an arduous task.
Since then, great changes have taken place in China's economic and social life. With the country's economic development pace accelerated, people's living conditions improved considerably.
According to the State Statistics Bureau, in 1995, urban residents' per capita annual income was 3,855 yuan ($464.50). Today, roughly half of all urban families are better off than they were, and 9 per cent are "affluent."
In the 1980s, household appliances such as colour TVs, washing machines and refrigerators were the most desired consumer products.
Today, most Chinese families have at least one of these things. According to the Science and Technology Daily, 90 per cent of urban Chinese families have durable goods including electrical home appliances. Sixteen years ago, almost none did.
China has become a major producer of colour TV sets, refrigerators, washing machines, electric fans and electric rice cookers.
In the 1990s, demand for ordinary electrical household appliances has slowed, and most people still have a long way to go before they can own their own house or car. As a result, people's tastes have turned towards a group of less expensive consumer electronic goods which could be called "the new four pieces" -- PC, fax machine, video camera and VCD player.
China acquired the ability to make PCs in bulk only in 1985. However, its PC market has grown dramatically.
Statistics indicate that 1.1 million PCs were sold in the Chinese market in 1995, and 200,000 of them were bought by individuals.
Almost all the world's computer giants have entered the Chinese market because of its huge potential.
Children are playing a major role in influencing families to buy personal computers, say market analysts.
A growing number of China's urban high schools require students to take at least part of their university entrance examinations on a personal computer.
Late last year, a survey conducted by the Social Investigation Centre under the China Youth Journal suggested that most secondary school students in Beijing have used computers either at home or at school.
More and more parents and even extended family members are spending much of their annual incomes on personal computers for the children.
Meanwhile, market demand for fax machines, VCD players and video cameras is also booming.
According to the China Business Times, sales of video cameras have increased 20 per cent annually in the last four years. China is now the largest market for VCD players. |
