Luxury consumption and the temporal-spatial subjectivity of Hong Kong men

Abstract

Extending critical luxury studies to a non-Western context, this article, using Burberry and other Western brands as examples, theorises how the temporal-spatial luxury subjectivity of homosexual Hong Kong male consumers is constituted through the intersections of British colonial history, nostalgia, the media, their personal and professional background, gender, social class, and emotional experiences. Using a consumer-focused anthropological perspective, we analyse how subjective, context-specific, and interwoven experiences of time and space co-constitute one’s perception of luxury and recurring luxury consumption practices alongside the forces of social structure and individual preferences. Dissecting consumers’ habitual and intimate relations to their wardrobes in the Hong Kong context, this article challenges and refines existing Eurocentric concepts of luxury, and helps clarify how (far) abstract macro-structural forces are consistently materialised into the normative outlook of luxury and micro-individual consumption practices.