Cheapskate Chatter消费降级时期，如何优雅地谈论省钱？

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How to talk about saving and conscientious spending in the era of “consumption downgrade”

Design by Wang Siqi; elements from VCG and Midjourney

“Changing from frugality to extravagance is easy， but going from extravagance to frugality is hard，” Sima Guang （司马光）， a politician from the Northern Song dynasty （960 – 1127）， summarized over 1，000 years ago. Today， Chinese society is facing exactly this challenge.

In the not-so-distant past， China was noted for conspicuous consumption fueled by “tycoon （土豪 tǔháo）” mentality， ubiquitous “buy buy buy （买买买 mǎi mǎi mǎi）” culture， and the trend of “overt displays of wealth （炫富 xuànfù）.” However， according to data firm Syntun， this year， sales during “618，” China’s second largest shopping festival， where online and offline merchants offered deals and promotions from late May to June， declined for the first time since the event was launched in 2008.

Economists have summarized China’s new love for thrift with the term “consumption downgrade （消费降级 xiāofèi jiàngjí）.” Rather than cutting out all non-essential spending， consumption downgrading is a strategy to balance cutting costs and maintaining an acceptable quality of life. Consumers may sacrifice experience， individuality， or taste to a certain degree to get the best bang for their buck. In 2018， the term was listed as one of the 10 “New Words of the Year” by the State Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center， and seems to have become increasingly popular amid the Covid-19 pandemic and gradual increases in cost of living in big cities. They might say：

I’m downgrading my consumption by replacing Starbucks with instant coffee.

Wǒ xiànzài xiāofèi jiàngjí le， yòng sùróng kāfēi dàitì Xīngbākè.

我现在消费降级了，用速溶咖啡代替星巴克。（剩余4070字）