China’s ‘Spicy Mums’: luxury-spending powerhouses who live by word of WeChat groups

The development of China in the past decade is most easily visible through big numbers.

Yet statistics such as “Chinese travelling overseas increased by 1,380 per cent from 2000 to 2017” do not help to understand the intricate changes in society that have taken place.

One of these enormous (seismic, tectonic, however far you want to go) changes is in the new parenting culture of China’s affluent millennial generation.

The more traditional aspects of Chinese parenting culture are clear: a one-child policy, parents who feel the need to pressure their child into intensive study, Einstein-level mathematics, weekend classes and the like, with grandparents and extended family all colluding into the alleged “Little Emperor” culture.

The new lifestyle, opinions and expectations of China’s millennials and their influence as the drivers of luxury consumption, should now be well accepted by anyone who reads about global luxury.

But now these millennials are also parents – China’s new generation of modern parents, living in globalised cities and travelling internationally at will.  

Just five to six years ago it was not uncommon to come across hotels in Shanghai that labelled themselves as “business hotels”, which were not interested in the “family” sector.

Only a few specialised shopping malls had sections for children’s play areas and the like.

In 2018, practically every single 5-star hotel offers children’s amenities, menus and activities, while countless shopping malls and other businesses now compete for family visitors with global names such as Peppa Pig and Dora the Explorer tagging along.  

In luxury, brands are eager to capture the new Chinese family: Baby Dior campaigns strongly, China has the most Burberry children’s stores in the world and Fendi Kids opened in Shanghai’s Plaza 66 in 2017.