In Vino (Social) Veritas? Wine Consumption and Middle Class Identity in Shanghai

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis was to explore the extent to which wine consumption and drinkers’ perceptions on wine can help understand middle class identity in Shanghai. The research relied on 25 interviews of wine drinkers and non-participant observations, as well as previous studies on middle class identity and consumption in China. The data have been analyzed utilizing Bourdieu’s theories on social distinction, focusing on the concepts of cultural capital, habitus, and taste. The study found that although wine is considered as an ordinary beverage because of its popularity among the middle class, it still carries the image of good taste, and taste itself allows educated middle class individuals to distinguish themselves from what they perceive as ostentatious “uneducated new rich.” Additionally, the study found that what interviewees perceive as the differences and demarcations characterizing wine consumption in China – being social, generational, or geographical – also designate these middle class individuals as the “legitimate wine drinkers.” This thesis concluded that whilst wine expresses urban middle class’ tasteful, relaxed, and cosmopolitan lifestyle, its consumption also indirectly reflects and demarcates interviewees’ ideal boundaries of middle class membership.