Luxury And Arts In China: The Island6 Case

Since Deng Xiaoping started opening China’s markets to international trade in 1978, the economy has undergone rapid growth. Thirty-four years later, China has become the secondlargest economy in the world after the United States.1 The number of citizens in China with assets over amillion dollars has risen in tandem, reaching approximately 1,110,000 million in 2011.2 Shanghai, one of China’s economic hubs, boasts 132,000 millionaire inhabitants (one Shanghainese out of 175 is a millionaire3) and as the saying goes, money attracts money. One of the consequences of the booming economy in China has been the development of the luxury market. Luxury goods are currently enjoying tremendous popularity among Chinese people. Theoverseas Chinese spending during the 2012 Spring Festival reached a record $7.2 billion; according to the World Luxury Association as reported in China Daily,4 Chinese purchases account for up to 62 percent of the European luxury market. The Economist reports that “overall consumption in China … will rise by 11 percent annually over the next five years”.5 The art sector is, however, not experiencing the rapid growth seen in the other sectors of the luxury market. In the most established areas of Shanghai, it is easy to find European designer stores, as China becomes Louis Vuitton’s largest market.6 The art sector has had markedly less successthan the luxury market when targeting the nouveaux riches