Paper short abstract:

This article examines technology changes and consumption culture changes in New Year Paintings in late Qing dynasty. It comes to the conclusion that neither technology determines social structure, nor social structure shapes technology. They are inter-constructed.

Paper long abstract:

This article examines technology changes and consumption culture changes in New Year Paintings in late Qing dynasty from a perspective of inter-construction. In China, New Year Paintings is a kind of folk art which represents social order in the traditional goods consumption. After late Qing dynasty, its technology, consumption culture, and even typical patterns have been changed for several times. A lot of research from art research has noticed the impact of consumption culture on its patterns. However, STS pay little attention to inter-construction between technology and consumption culture of New Year Paintings. In this paper, I intend to use technology changes and consumption culture changes in New Year Paintings as a case study to show how they inter-construct with each other. According to preliminary works, in late Qing dynasty, manual technology was quickly replaced by machinery printing technology in traditional cultural context of New Year Paintings. Meanwhile，a new pattern of New Year Paintings by new technology triggered a new kind of consumption culture. Thus, it could be assumed that there may be an inter-construction between technology and consumption culture. I argue that the changes in the technology of New Year Paintings and its consumption culture is worth studying from the standpoint of inter-construction, as it illustrates an interlaced discourse between the artistic , technical and the social context, therefore, it reflects complicated interactions between art, technology and society.

Key Words: New Year Paintings; consumption culture; folk art; technology transformation; inter-construction