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China Consumer Goods
As with food supplies and clothing, the availability of
housewares went through several stages. Simple, inexpensive
household items, like
thermoses, cooking pans, and clocks were stocked in department
stores and other retail outlets all over China from the 1950s on.
Relatively expensive consumer durables became available more
gradually. In the 1960s production and sales of bicycles, sewing
machines, wristwatches, and transistor radios grew to the point
that these items became common household possessions, followed in
the late 1970s by television sets and cameras
(see Other Consumer Goods
, ch. 7). In the 1980s supplies of furniture and electrical
appliances increased along with family incomes. Household survey
data indicated that by 1985 most urban families owned two bicycles,
at least one sofa, a writing desk, a wardrobe, a sewing machine, an
electric fan, a radio, and a television. Virtually all urban adults
owned wristwatches, half of all families had washing machines, 10
percent had refrigerators, and over 18 percent owned color
televisions. Rural households on average owned about half the
number of consumer durables owned by urban dwellers. Most farm
families had 1 bicycle, about half had a radio, 43 percent owned a
sewing machine, 12 percent had a television set, and about half the
rural adults owned wristwatches.
Data as of July 1987
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