The different lifestyles of people in different countries/regions are closely related to the historical background and economic developments of their residing places. Even within the same country, people’s ways of life in different cities/regions can be diverse which very much reflect the social, cultural and environmental trends of these places.

Recently, Asian Lifestyle Design Research Lab (ALDL) of the University’s School of Design (SD) has completed a two-year long study on the lifestyles of middle-class families on the Chinese mainland, covering five aspects of their everyday life — city dwelling, food, communication, leisure and clothing. In 10 major cities on the Chinese mainland, PolyU researchers conducted 200 household visits and captured snapshots of the cities through photos, case studies and literature review, giving birth to the world’s first image database on the lifestyle of middle-class Chinese families. Leader of the project, Mr Benny Leong, Assistant Professor of SD and ALDL person-in-charge, explains the research findings and analyses the subjects’ expectations for modern life.

Q: With respect to city dwelling, what are the major findings of the study?

Leong: The study found that Shanghai residents valued privacy and bedrooms in their apartments tend to be far apart while Chengdu residents are green conscious with more plants in their houses as compared to those in other mainland cities. Residents in Guangzhou are least concerned with style and taste, but they believed in Feng Shui (風水) and considered an “in-house garden” a must-have in an ideal urban dweller’s home; while quite a number of apartments in Zhengzhou feature a balcony-like sunroom.

Q: How do researchers explore the subjects’ communication needs and what are the findings?

Leong: We assessed the subjects’ communication needs by exploring their preferred mobile phone features. Those from Shanghai, many of them being professional migrants, demanded Global Positioning System (GPS)-integrated services to facilitate driving. Respondents from Zhengzhou favoured electronic cash functions while Tianjin people considered the information screening feature important in filtering deceitful SMS messages. In Guangzhou, where female safety is much of a concern, the respondents preferred alarm and torch functions.

Q: Do the findings have any correlation with historical, cultural, socio-economic and environmental factors?

Leong: Yes. In the socio-economic aspect, the past three decades have seen the extremely rapid urbanization development on the Chinese mainland. The emergence of “floating people” or migrants is one very interesting social phenomenon on the mainland nowadays. Around one fifth of the Chinese mainland’s population are living and/or working outside their hometowns. Quite a number of them have settled in coastal cities such as Guangzhou, Shanghai, Ningbo, etc. One third of Guangzhou’s population and one quarter of Shanghai’s are migrants, separated into two types — “floating” and “settled”.

These two types of migrants have different preferences in mobile communication technologies. The GPS preference in Shanghai has much to do with those educated, settled migrants, in which quite a number of them are subjects of this research. GPS, a path-finding assistant, is useful to them as they are alienated of Shanghai’s urban setting. Also, rural migrants have been causing some social security issues in Guangzhou and the robbery and thievery rates will usually mount abruptly before the Lunar New Year. Hence, alarm and identity verification features in mobile devices are much desirable in this city.

On the other hand, the influence of cultural and environmental factors is most evidential in the findings of the dwelling aspect. Culturally, people in Chengdu have inherited over 2,000 years of heritage and wisdom of leisure living. Their preference for green plants is just a reflection of how much they enjoy planting to brighten up their home environment. Also, people in Chengdu pay less attention to “face-saving” purchase, and tend to be content with even small apartments. Among all the cities under research, Chengdu has the smallest apartment size on average.

In terms of environmental influence, sandstorms engender balcony-like “sunroom” in Zhengzhou. The humid and cloudy weather leads to the need of inter-terrace and light-coloured wall finishing in Chengdu. Also, the moisty climate contributes to the popularity of tiled-flooring in Guangzhou.

Q: What would be the use of the research data collected?

The massive visual and textual data collected can be used to formulate creative, sustainable design solutions or strategies at both the daily business innovation level and the policy level, and market development strategies at the commercial level. Based on these data, designers, trades and industries can explore the upcoming trends and create innovative and sustainable products and services for the regional/national and Asian lifestyle.

Also, the data will be useful in investigating the drivers of lifestyle change for research and teaching purposes. In gathering the data, PolyU has teamed up with 10 top design schools on the Chinese mainland, including Tsinghua University Academy of Arts and Design and Tongji University College of Design & Innovation, to form the Lifestyle Design Research Network of China (LSDER-China).

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