The essays in this collection challenge conventional ideas about consumption and consumerism: they consider if the inundation of Western consumer goods have created identity confusions among the affluent in Asia, and if the expansion of consumer culture really does threaten the stability of politically anti-liberal states in Asia. This is the first book to analyse in detial consumerism in the region, and will be valuable reading for students and researchers in Asian studies, economics, politics and cultural studies.

1. Consuming Asians: Ideas and Issues, Chua Beng Huat 2. Malaysia: Power Shifts and The Matrix of Consumption, Rokiah Talib 3. Changing Lifestyles and Consumption Patterns of South Korean Middle Class and New Generation, Seung-Kuk Kim 4. Economic Development and Changing Patterns of Consumption in Urban China, Chengze Simon Fan 5. Middle Class Formation and Comsumption in Hong Kong, Annie Hau-nung Chan 6. Global Lifestyles under Local Conditions: The New Indonesian Middle Class, Solvay Gerke 7. The Formation and Consumption of KTV in Taiwan, Kuan-Hsing Chen 8. Singaporeans Ingesting McDonald's 9. Japan Consumes 'America': From Symbol to System, Shunya Yoshimi 10. The Anomic World of the High Consumers: Fashion and Cultural Formation, Joanne Finkelstein