The Song Dynasty Nightless City in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, is a national 4A-level tourist attraction and a national-level nighttime cultural and tourism consumption cluster. Photo: IC PHOTO

Cultural identity has long been a central theme in cultural studies. Existing research and recent surveys indicate that broad participation in cultural consumption can strengthen cultural identity. But through what mechanisms does cultural consumption influence cultural identity? Cultural analysis theory emphasizes the individual actor’s agency in selecting and constructing cultural identity, while often overlooking the structural constraints on action; cultural sociology, conversely, tends to stress how culture influences action, while paying less attention to the question of “how action influences culture (and identity).”

In this light, this article seeks to understand, through a more complete “structure (agency)–action–culture” chain, how actions are constrained by material and cultural structures, while also examining how actions produce and shape culture. In other words, from the perspective of where actions originate and what kinds of consequences they generate, it proposes an “action chain” theoretical framework to deepen our understanding of cultural identity.

Within this “action chain” framework, the impact of cultural consumption on cultural identity can be understood through at least three mechanisms: the demand–satisfaction mechanism, the everyday practice mechanism, and the consumption capital mechanism. The first two are largely grounded in practice theory, which holds that consumption behavior is embedded in social practices, while the third places greater emphasis on the autonomy and irreducibility of cultural taste itself. All three mechanisms, to varying degrees, also focus on the development and transformation of cultural consumption, maintaining that under certain supply, institutional, and cultural conditions, cultural consumption can reshape cultural identity. The overall analysis is therefore dynamic and rich in practical implications.

Consumption driven by demand

Demand-driven cultural consumption can help strengthen cultural identity. Demand is the primary driver of behavior—especially consumption—yet sociology often overlooks this endogenous factor due to its focus on external social structures. The “practice turn” in the sociology of consumption at the end of the 20th century, along with its “supply-side perspective” derivative, offered a distinctive explanatory model for the generation and fulfillment of demand: it is practice—rather than mere individual desire—that produces demand, and only through participation in practice can that demand be satisfied.

The 2023 National Survey on Residents’ Satisfaction with Cultural Development measured the extent to which various needs in cultural consumption—such as leisure and relaxation, audiovisual enjoyment, aesthetic appreciation, social interaction, and the enhancement of cultural literacy—are being met. Results show that, compared with single-type cultural consumers, those with a “compatible” consumption profile reported a higher rate of satisfaction across all categories, with people who engaged in a greater number of cultural activities showing similar trends. While fulfilling universal needs such as leisure and enjoyment may not be directly related to identity, meeting the need for aesthetic appreciation is closely linked to moral judgment and value identity, and satisfying social needs is closely tied to group identity.

When cultural consumption is driven by multiple needs and supported by both demand-side and supply-side conditions, individuals can participate broadly in a range of public, market, and self-organized cultural activities. This compatible consumption pattern, beyond meeting general needs for relaxation and enjoyment, can strengthen value identification with traditional and mainstream culture and foster collective identity with one’s community and even the nation, particularly through the satisfaction of aesthetic and social needs.

Consumption embedded in everyday life

Cultural consumption embedded in everyday life practices can “emerge” and nurture cultural identity. From a practice perspective, consumption is but one “moment” within a broader practice, and most practices require and produce consumption. As such, consumption both structures daily life and must be understood in connection with people’s engagement in everyday practices. Practice theory offers a useful lens for understanding the “action chain” of cultural consumption.

Cultural consumption may be triggered by personal-life practices, such as leisure or self-improvement, or by social-life practices, such as socializing, group activities, or child-rearing. In personal-life practices, it is constrained by individual circumstances and cultural tastes, and the range of types involved may be relatively narrow—for example, someone accustomed to spending leisure time scrolling videos or playing games may find it hard to achieve the “personal revolution” required to instead read books or visit museums. In social-life practices, however, such path-dependent patterns are more easily broken, giving way to motives like social interaction, companionship, or role modeling. In this context, cultural consumption often involves negotiation and may encompass a wider—and sometimes entirely new—range of activities. For example, a person who normally spends their weekend leisure time on their phone might, for the sake of accompanying their child, visit museums or pick up a book in front of them to set a good example.

Daily practices are often habitual and routine, yet they are not necessarily static; they are dynamic and evolving, with behavioral change rooted in the development of practices themselves. In recent years, the “enactment paradigm” has gained traction within the sociology of consumption. Compared with the “practice paradigm,” which emphasizes the maintenance and reproduction of structure, the enactment paradigm focuses on how structural change is generated through human agency, offering another useful lens for understanding behavioral change. “Enactment” highlights the process from generating an idea to implementing it in action; once a novel idea is acted upon, enactment gives way to practice, which reproduces its results. For instance, people may embrace “personal-revolutionary” ideas, adopting a more active and healthy lifestyle. While initiated by individual agency, this shift also requires external support—thus, enactment involves both “material-technical enactment” and “social enactment.”

As for the outcomes of cultural consumption embedded in daily practice, when individuals have opportunities to participate in a richer variety and greater number of cultural activities, they can understand culture in more contexts and through different practices. On one hand, the intersection of multiple practices facilitates exposure to entirely new cultural forms, fostering appreciation and identity—in other words, cultural identity “emerges.” On the other, through learning, visits, interpretation, and discussions with children, family, and friends, individuals can deepen their understanding of traditional culture, mainstream culture, and other cultural forms, making it easier to develop cultural consciousness and emotional attachment, which in turn lead to a more cohesive cultural identity.

Consumption capital shaped by experiences and knowledge

Cultural consumption experiences and knowledge shape “consumption capital,” thereby fostering cultural identity. The concept of consumption capital is helpful in rethinking both the occurrence and the consequences of cultural consumption. Unlike the relatively static demand-satisfaction mechanism, or the novelty that “emerges” from intersecting practices, or the more agentic enactment process, the consumption capital mechanism emphasizes the inherently dynamic nature of cultural consumption and cultural taste. To understand cultural consumption, one should not only consider the static snapshot of an actor’s characteristics and circumstances, but also the diachronic changes of both the actor and their external environment—how cultural consumption has developed into its present form and how it may evolve in the future.

Consumption capital also emphasizes how consumption shapes participation experiences, interpersonal relationships, and emotional meaning, thus helping to explain how consumption promotes cultural identity. Consumption involving cultural goods and services entails more intensive interpersonal interaction and emotional engagement, making it more likely to generate consumption capital tied to a particular lifestyle or group affiliation. This deepens our understanding of how cultural consumption and taste shape social identity, beyond individual attributes or class.

The notion of “subcultural capital” typifies this mechanism. Street culture enthusiasts, skateboarders, and similar groups make extensive use of consumption rituals and styles to signal their distinctiveness from mainstream culture. More importantly, through defining, interpreting, and distinguishing this unique consumption culture, they maintain specialized tastes, meanings, and status hierarchies, thereby constructing subcultural capital. Subcultural capital underscores the relative autonomy of lifestyle and taste; even when physically distant from the subcultural group or having aged into middle adulthood, individuals often retain a deep emotional identification.

Extensive participation in cultural consumption can accelerate the accumulation of consumption capital in both variety and quantity, fostering open and eclectic cultural tastes. With appropriate guidance, this can lead to shifts in cultural consumption and greater identification with mainstream culture.

Survey data show that, compared with non-compatible cultural consumers, compatible consumers have broader cultural tastes, with more expressing a liking (somewhat or very much) for both high culture and popular culture. Moreover, they report higher levels of appreciation for mainstream culture and traditional Chinese culture. Because they possess greater consumption capital, they are more likely to identify with multiple cultures; greater consumption capital also tends to foster cultural consciousness, thereby enhancing cultural confidence.

Promoting broad and diverse cultural consumption

Against the backdrop of contemporary social change, cultural identity may tend toward fragmentation and ephemerality. Identification with diverse and different cultures, as well as stage-specific and temporary affiliations, may fragment social life, hindering the development of both individuals and society as a whole. Ultimately, challenges surrounding cultural identity must be addressed through “cultural solutions.” In contrast to existing studies that focus on external factors (such as socioeconomic status), individual agency, or purely instrumental mechanisms, this article emphasizes explanations rooted in consumption behavior embedded within everyday practice and in the autonomy of cultural taste. Engagement in cultural consumption is itself a continuous process of understanding, interpreting, and identifying with culture. By accumulating cultural experiences and cultivating cultural tastes, individuals can strengthen their cultural identity.

This analysis also yields several policy implications. Government should encourage residents to participate more extensively in various forms of cultural consumption to foster cultural identity and strengthen cultural confidence. Doing so would likely improve and optimize the supply of cultural services and products, meeting residents’ multi-level and diverse needs, bringing high-quality cultural resources directly to the grassroots level, and enhancing satisfaction with different types of culture and activities.

At the same time, governments should also innovate cultural activities and enhance the contextual richness of cultural consumption, encouraging residents to incorporate cultural consumption into everyday practices such as leisure, entertainment, and children’s education. This will help cultivate broad cultural tastes and improve residents’ understanding and identification with different types of culture.

Finally, governments should refine and innovate the mechanisms for cultivating, practicing, and building civility, guiding residents to identify with mainstream culture, traditional culture, and core beliefs, thereby boosting cultural confidence in the course of advancing Chinese modernization.

Zhu Di is a research fellow from the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.