A new trend has popped up in China with many young people abandoning brand (品牌) names to create makeshift handbags out of things like reusable grocery bags and other materials. One example is the Shenzhen bag, which includes canvas (帆布) bags, paper bags, milk tea packages that people carry around in Guangdong Province.
Makeshift handbags like the "Shenzhen bag" are also common among young people in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou. People find the bags practical, wearable and fashionable, and they can be carried on the shoulder or the back. This emerging trend reveals a new attitude to consumption as young people in China begin to pursue a simple and shared life, with consumers no longer blindly pursuing brand names as a status (身份) symbol, but advocating a simple and low-carbon lifestyle. In addition to the handbags, and regardless of their monthly incomes, many young people are living more casually, in line with a "good enough mentality". Loose T-shirts, Crocs, and canvas bags are basically standard mode.
"Consumers today are becoming more mature and rational. They are pursuing smarter consumption through careful consideration and calculation to find the cheapest; most practical, cost-effective way of shopping," says. Wang Ning, a sociology professor at Nanjing's Southeast University.
Economists believe that China's Generation Z no longer blindly pursues brands and luxury goods or buys things for brand name and status. Instead, they pay more attention to their actual needs, quality, and experience of buying, and prefer sharing and secondhand purchases. They also advocate environmental protection and sustainable consumption.
Price-aware Chinese consumers have also begun to place a greater emphasis on their inner selves. Driven by rational consumption, many young people no longer save to buy a brand-name bag, but for self-improvement.
The new handbag trend has also created business opportunities. Reusing packaging used for food brands as handbags results in mobile advertising for the associated brands, and the phenomenon of the "Shenzhen Bag" has also benefited paper bag companies.