The process of globalization is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it has been credited with creating new markets for the West, creating jobs in developing countries, and connecting people worldwide through trade in consumer goods. On the other hand, it has been criticized for spreading wasteful consumer culture, exploitation of natural resources, and increasing pollution worldwide. Karl Gerth addresses both issues in his new book on how consumption in China is transforming the world.

Gerth has produced a well-researched analysis of how this nation of over a billion people is moving from a producing to a consuming society. This shift is not without consequences. He points out that the rise of consumerism is being sanctioned, even engineered, by the Chinese government: “although China remains a nominally socialist country, consumerism is now deeply entrenched in all areas of Chinese life” (p. 4). As much as a third of the population (over 430 million people) is currently classified as middle class consumers, and Gerth argues that the rising Chinese appetite for TVs, cars, refrigerators, phones, and DVD players is transforming the world in significant ways.

While the GDP per capita in the People's Republic of China is still relatively low, during the past two decades China has been the world's largest and most rapidly developing country. It already has one-fifth of the world's consumers, and, with its rapidly growing middle-class hungry for consumer goods, China is poised to take center stage in the global bazaar.

Over the past ten years, millions of people in China have moved up to the middle class. Many others have moved up to the wealthiest class. As Gerth points out, in the late 1990s, having a net worth of $6 million earned one a spot on Forbes' list of the wealthiest Chinese. Five years later it took at least $150 million to make the list. While this economic growth has presented unprecedented opportunities for Western multinationals—nearly 30% of all new McDonald's in the next few years will be in China—this rampant consumerism has also brought with it another phenomenon: piracy.

Huge markets have sprung up in all the large cities in China selling fake branded items like Gucci bags, Mont Blanc pens, and pirated CDs and DVD. The rise of consumerism and the Chinese ability to copy branded icons has strained ties between the wealthy countries in the West and China.

Gerth has done an excellent job of summarizing the growing consumer culture in China. He presents chapters that outline the role of Taiwan in fueling the growth; the collusion of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in stimulating the rising consumer society; the huge “fake” market that has developed; the extreme markets that this unchecked capitalism has created (the sex trade, sale of organs, sale of endangered species); and the environmental consequences of unbridled consumerism.

Gerth asserts that the rising consumer culture in China is based on Western consumer culture. Yet, one might argue that there are other Asian societies that have implemented consumer society quite successfully and that these might very well have been the models upon which the CCP based their gamble. Over the past few decades, the Singapore government has crafted a consumer culture model with great success. By encouraging an environment for consumption, Singapore's single-party government has been able to sustain the goodwill and support of its citizens.

While other books on China's consumer culture have been written recently, such as Elite China by Pierre Xiao Lu (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2008) and Luxury China: Market Opportunities and Potential by Chevalier and Pierre Xiao Lu (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2009), these other books are aimed at Western corporations that might want to ride the tide of consumer growth in China, Gerth, on the other hand, tries to walk the thin line between criticizing this growth and condoning it: “…there is no one ‘right’ interpretation about what the expansion of Chinese consumerism will mean for China or the rest of the world….” (p. 205). And that is true, no one can foretell the future. But Gerth does a good job in laying out the issues. His book is well researched and the picture of China is so carefully crafted that this book is a must for all who are fascinated to watch the dragon emerge.