White Rabbit, a well-established Chinese brand of milk candy, sets up a pop-up amusement park in East China’s Shanghai on June 23. Photo by Wang Chu/People’s Daily Online

Residents of the Dong ethnic group in Dutong Township, South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, learn how to sell local products on livestream platforms on July 14. Photo by Feng Yu, Zhang Shanyu/People’s Daily Online

A mother and her son wait for food cooked by a robot in Zhengzhou, capital of Central China’s Henan Province on May 1. Photo by Zhang Tao/People’s Daily Online

A recent report revealed that health care consumption, cultural consumption and customized consumption are becoming a hotspot and new trends in China.

“Have you eaten yet?” The common greeting in China reflects both the relationship between the people and the fundamental role played by food in the life of the Chinese people.

Meals now have their different purposes in China. Some are made to offer nutrition; some are catered to fitness fans; and some are specially made for children. This indicates that China has transformed from a country that once lacked food to one that enjoys food and knows how to make better food. Nowadays, QR code and online apps have been widely applied in food ordering, and group buying, food delivery and restaurant reviews further mirror the convenience brought by the mobile internet.

Data suggested that China’s Engel’s coefficient, a measure of the proportion of household expenditure on food in the total household spending, has been dropping for eight years in a row and plunged to 28.2 percent last year, which indicated that Chinese people’s consumption choices have been significantly enriched over the years and that they have spent more and more money on products and services other than food.

With a click on their phones, Chinese consumers can now book high-speed rail and flight tickets and have a trip whenever they want; Chinese domestic brands are launching more and more trendy products tailored for the young generation; and paid memberships of online entertainment and cultural platforms is also common among the people.

Consumption, extending its scope, upgrading its structure and going with greater energy, is not only bringing in more colorful lifestyles, but also driving economic growth.

Consumption is an important part in improving people’s livelihood, and a strong driving force for economic growth.

When consumption scenarios extend from brick-and-mortar shops to online platforms, commodities turn from entities to services, and simple consumption experiences start getting customized, lives are upgraded and a new blue ocean for the economy is arriving.

Dressing styles in China used to be simple and maybe a little dull, but today Chinese fashion brands are taking it to the world stage. The Chinese people used to live in shabby and tube-shaped apartments, while now they have moved into multi-storey buildings with elevators.

Such changes reflect the interrelation between the micro-level livelihood improvement and the macro economic development, as well as the benign interaction between the rising supply and constantly huge domestic demand.

Today, the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people, including the 400 million middle-income earners, have formed a hyper-scale domestic market, which not only serves as an advantage for China to deal with risks and challenges, but also represents the country’s potential for future development.

Once the engine for development is switched on, it will surely expand the boundaries of people’s imagination.

While China is halfway to building a moderately prosperous society, technological advances in Internet-based innovations and artificial intelligence have formed a strong force in changing people’s lives and spurring rapid changes in the consumer market.

Today, facial recognition technology in unmanned supermarkets is bringing more convenience to people, and livestream marketing changing the fates of rural residents in remote villages by making it easier to sell local specialties.

At the same time, smart logistics systems have continuously been upgraded and improved people’s online shopping experience, and drones have facilitated the country’s endeavor to boost smart agriculture and injected technological strength into rural revitalization.

The changing consumption scenarios of the Chinese people mirror the changes in their daily life, which tells the goals of building a moderately prosperous society - to improve the livelihood of the people and bring drastic and rapid development.