China shaped global culture through consumer power rather than direct promotion

Evidence

The real impact of China in the twenty-first century has been less about its direct attempts to shape global culture and more about what is happening behind the scenes, where the enormous consumer power of Chinese youth helped give a new direction to the world’s most aspirational products. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 752

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: is this offstage-consumption mechanism unique to China, or a general route for rising powers to shape global taste?